Recent Epoch

11,000 years ago to the present

Average longevity of species is about 5 to 10 million years according to the fossil records. But now man has reduced the longevity of species to under 100 years.

Unknown

14,000 - 10,500 YEARS AGO

Earth is in the grip of the last Ice Age around 14,000 years ago, and a bitterly cold world it was at this time. Definitely more than a worthwhile thought for many humans to stay close to the equator just to benefit from the constant supply of relatively warm air, and an abundance of food. In the warmer summer months, some groups of humans made the sensible decision to migrate away from the equator due to the intense and extra competition from other humans and animals (you can only fit so many animals in the equatorial region at any one time). Only a few hardy brutes would endure the cold in the winter by choosing to stay in more temperate zones sheltering in caves or making use of thick animal skin hides for clothing and creating tents. Only a few courageous humans might consider using the ice itself as an effective barrier against the extremely cold winds coming from the Arctic regions through the construction of igloos. However, things were about to change, mostly for the better when it came to those who chose to migrate into the temperate zones.

Around 13,000 years ago something had began to warm up the planet. Slowly at first, but a moment came when the warming process had accelerated in a dramatic way, far quicker than it should have.

Why the sudden warming? A good question indeed.

What we do know is that the continuous burning of wood by humans to keep warm can release a small amount of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. If there were enough humans carving out an existence in the colder regions, we can expect this deliberate decision to burn wood to have some contribution to global warming. It would all be a question of time. Once a critical level is reached, a certain amount of methane in the oceans trapped inside hydrate ice would get released. The methane rises to the surface of the ocean to enter the atmosphere, and before you know it a fairly sudden and dramatic rise in world temperatures (well, in a matter of years or a few decades depending on how much methane comes out of the oceans) will occur. Or, needless to say, the amount of methane already generated by animals (yes, we can safely add humans to the mix) probably did contribute to global warming in their own capacity. Don't think for a moment the animals cannot influence climate change. They certainly can. We can be sure a combination of carbon dioxide and methane were contributing to the warming of the planet. All it takes is a passage of enough time, even if it takes thousands of years because of the way the polar ice can keep the ocean temperatures low enough to prevent the release of a large amount of methane into the atmosphere from beneath the oceans. Not anymore. Something else had begun the warming process far sooner than expected and in an accelerated way.

According to geological evidence gathered by some scientists, it all started in North America. Here we see the ice had melted very quickly. Certainly not the normal melting scientists have come to expect from previous Ice Ages. Whatever the cause of this melting, not long after this, the Gulf Stream in the Atlantic Ocean was re-activated where warm waters in the Caribbean sea and the Gulf of Mexico moved across the Atlantic Ocean to reach northern Europe. On reaching this continent, the warm ocean currents will push the colder waters back to the equator. Without this warm ocean currents reaching Europe, the cold and dry air coming in from the Atlantic Ocean would only add to the harsh and bitterly cold Arctic winds coming from the north to keep Europe locked in an almost perpetual Ice Age. Now, at last, the warm and moist air coming from the Atlantic Ocean was able to move over the European continent. Once this happened around 10,500 years ago, all it took was one unusually hot European summer with temperatures 6 to 8°C higher than usual to begin melting a significant amount of solid ice from glaciers (1). give it another 5 to 50 years (a blink of an eye in comparison to Earth's geological history) for the Ice Age to came to an abrupt end in Europe.

With extra fresh water flowing into the oceans from melting ice sheets and glaciers, sea levels around the world rose significantly. For example, the island of Tasmania was formed south of the Australian mainland as water rushed over the flat plains to create the sea of Bass Strait. As for the great valley separating Europe from Africa, this would get slowly flooded by salt water from the Atlantic Ocean as it toppled over a canyon lying between Spain and Africa. At first it was a trickle, but as the ocean levels rose higher, it appeared as a large waterfall. About 1,000 years later the Mediterranean Sea was formed and joined with the Atlantic Ocean. By the time all of the ice sheets in Europe, Russia and North America had melted, scientists believe sea levels rose by at least 74 and probably as much as 120 metres in a matter of 50 years (or probably sooner). This was a fairly quick event compared to the slow rise in temperature lasting thousands of years when the world was in the midst of the Ice Age. Something had to melt the ice quickly for this to happen, and methane was just one small part of it.

Despite the alluring theory of lots of methane and a bit of carbon dioxide contributing to world temperatures, not all scientists are in total agreement about how the last Ice Age came to an abrupt end. The big problem with the natural methane and carbon dioxide theory is that many large mammals of the megafauna era, including the Wolly Mammoths, died out after the end of the last Ice Age. These are the same animals that survived previous and more intense Ice Ages followed by several interglacial periods. And yet incredibly, many would not survive the end of the last Ice Age. Why should this be so?

Some scientists have considered a range of possible explanations.

Was it to do with the rate of melting of glaciers that took many slow moving large animals by surprise with sudden floods in low lying areas? For other animals, the melting ice sheets could have created many large marshy areas causing large animals to struggle and eventually got bog down in the mud, expend too much energy, and eventually die from hunger. Without adequate food to provide the extra energy and muscle development, these animals probably starved to death.

Or did the large animals suffer overheating in the unusually warmer days with their thick skin and fur? Then again, the animals could simply migrate to the colder regions further north.

Or was it a situation of humans being too eager to hunt down the last remaining large, cumbersome and slow to reproduce animals to extinction (knowing how easy it was to catch them)? A kind of smorgasbord of meat-lovers delights just sitting out there for the taking.

Now, according to a respected archaeologist Professor Ken Tankersley from the University of Cincinnati, he thinks he could have the answer.

In a place called Sheridan Cave located in Ohio, USA, Tankersley noticed a thin layer of distinctly reddish dirt known as the Clovis layer below 10 metres of soil. The depth of this reddish material is significant in the sense that it has been dated to around the end of the last Ice Age, approximately 13,000 years ago. A fairly useful observation. Now we just need to know what is this reddish material. Fortunately Tankersly has made another important discovery. It seems that this same reddish layer has been observed in at least 20 other sites dotted around the continent suggesting that whatever had deposited this material was a widespread event. Furthermore, after analysing the soil, he noticed unusually high concentrations of iron (up to 50 times above the expected level in the surrounding soil both above and below the layer in question). This naturally had Tankersly wondering, "Where did this extra iron come from?"

One clue lies in outer space.

After realising some rocks in space can contain high amounts of iron, Tankersley has put forward a bold new theory that perhaps an asteroid may have impacted somewhere in North America causing the end of the last Ice Age worldwide (or certainly for this continent at the very least). If not, it would be a comet scrapping the Earth's atmosphere and creating a partial combustion of the air. What it was and where precisely he doesn't know for sure. Indeed, the biggest problem with his theory is the lack of a crater and one that is much bigger than the thing that hit Arizona nearly 50,000 years ago. Then again, after further studies by planetary geologist Professor Peter Shultz using a high speed gun in California developed by NASA, it suggests that the great glacial ice sheets of North America were up to a mile thick and this may have been sufficient to help reduce the size of the crater and erode much of the evidence of the impact site once the ice melted making it virtually impossible to locate. The theory is sounding more plausible by the day.

The mysterious red layer with unusually high deposits of iron. This is taken inside Sheridan Cave in Ohio, USA. (Image from the BBC documentary film Catastrophe, 2010.).

If this isn't convincing enough, Tankersley has discovered bones of mega mammals living on the continent that have suddenly stopped existing above the crucial iron-rich red layer. As Tankersley said:

"We're looking at the Clovis layer. It's a very distinct layer here in the case. Beneath it, we have mega mammals remains. Above the layer, there are no more mega mammals. This literally represents the extinction event." (Quote from the BBC documentary film Catastrophe, 2010.)

On closer examination, the bones within the layer appear to have characteristic signs of flesh having been burned off the bone at temperatures above 300°C which no ordinary cooking method by humans could achieve. The seemingly sudden nature of the extinction of the mega mammals in North America and the widespread nature of the iron-rich layer of soil is not suggesting to Tankersley of any possible human contribution to the extinction (well, at least in the North American continent). As Tankersley stated:

"One of the things that intrigues me about this time period and about this site is we have no clear cut answer as to what caused the extinction of these mega mammals. Over hunting, people killing these animals just does not fit. And when we look at all the other Ice Ages which came to an end, these mega mammals did not go extinct. So why now? And why here? This is one of the most intriguing questions that I've ever faced." (Quote from the BBC documentary film Catastrophe, 2010.)

It is most certainly intriguing by any account.

Yet we have a problem with this asteroid theory as the sole explanation for the extinction of all mega-mammals. This single catastrophic event that allegedly took place in North America was not sufficient to cause an immediate extinction of all mega mammals in other parts of the world, most notably the Wolly Mammoths in northern Europe and Russia. As for the theory of melting waters creating marshy grasslands to prevent the easy escape of these large animals, In Europe and Russia it would take a while for the ice to melt, probably a few months, and so permitting enough time for these animals to migrate to higher ground and in places where there would be plenty of food. And why would the Wolly Mammoths of Europe and Russia eventually disappear from the face of the Earth at least a thousand years or so after its cousins in North America did? The extinction for the European animal counterparts did not coincide precisely with the reddish layer. The animals would continue to survive for quite a big longer after the event. Furthermore, the Wolly Mammoths of Europe survived much colder conditions in previous Ice Ages, so the temperature of high heat or cold was not great enough to affect the European mega-mammals. Only the end of this current Ice Age did the animals fall foul and ended up on the extinction list. This would suggest something else must have pushed them over the edge.

It is clear that the impact of an asteroid or large comet in North America was not catastrophic enough to wipe out the big animals in Europe and Russia. In fact, the impact wasn't even big enough to wipe out a large two-legged creature we call humans.

Indeed, just prior to the sudden warming, there was an opportunity during the period when things were slowly warming up for some humans to migrate further north and east across Asia. Further exploration of the lands by these highly adventurous individuals allowed North America to be accessible thanks to the land bridge formed with Russia and with slightly less ice to act as a barrier to the migration. Once humans travelled south again, they discovered a whole new world in North America. The opportunity to live off large mammals consisting of Columbian Mammoths (the cousins of Wolly Mammoths in Europe), bisons and wild boar was too great to go back to where they came from. Humans quickly made a home in this part of the world. Yet in doing so, the asteroid/comet impact would not wipe out the humans, so why would we think the animals in Europe and Russia would suffer the same fate as the big animals in North America after the impact?

Perhaps it would be more reasonable to say that there was a reduction in the number of mega-fauna at the time of the impact as suggested by Tankersley. However, in Europe and Russia, the large Wolly Mammoths persisted for longer. Any short period of slightly colder and drier conditions following the impact would probably not have affected the animals in Europe. Or they would migrate further south to escape the cold. Then conditions began to warm up. Sure, the warming of the planet can reduce the vast grasslands spread across southeastern Europe right across to the eastern edge of Russia as a source of food for the large animals. There is even talk of extra snow falling in the United States after the ice sheets melted forcing the warm and moist air to travel further north and leaving the eastern United States in extra snow in the winter and a drier desert-like environment in the southwest of the continent. But all this would simply mean the large animals would migrate to where the food would grow. And as evidence would have it, we learn that Wolly Mammoths and other large animals did migrate north to follow the ice sheets while staying on higher ground to enjoy the dry and thick grasslands. Following them were reindeer, bisons and other animals that still exist to this day. But, given enough time, not even the largest animals would survive. Something else had affected these larger animals. Combined with a slow development of the reproductive system and the possibility it took up to a couple of decades for the offsprings to reach adult maturity and size, it is more likely the constant pressure of humans hunting down Wolly Mammoths led to the extinction of the species.

Not all extinctions at the end of the last Ice Age can be blamed on an asteroid/comet impact.

In fact, on a Russian island in the northern Arctic region, the last place to find the most recent remains of Wolly Mammoths showed they indeed migrated north and survived. Interestingly these animals became smaller in size to adapt to the environment on the island with less food. That must have taken a while to adapt to a smaller size and on less food. yet the animals did survive successfully until something stopped them from reproducing and allowing enough time for the offsprings to grow. And as history tells us, they would not survive well beyond the last Ice Age. There is only one explanation: humans must have reached the island and eventually played a decisive role in the ultimate demise of the largest animals of the Ice Age era. The humans continued to think there were plenty of these animals elsewhere, and yet they had not realised the last remaining Wolly Mammoths on the entire planet were living on this island. Afterward the animals were slaughtered, years went by and these humans walked around in the summer and probably thought to themselves, "Where have all those big hairy elephants with large tusks gone? Have the gods been mean to us for not giving enough of our offerings to appease them and so give us a bountiful supply of wild game for us to hunt for the summer?"

Yet humans continued to come up with the idea of hunting some more animals of the smaller variety and later sacrificed a few more to the gods thinking that the large animals will somehow return. Why weren't these animals not coming back? Well, it doesn't take a genius to work out why.

Now, at last, the most recent evidence from American scientists of damage to bones of Ice Age giants show that the increasing population of humans had indeed been messing up the ecology of the mega-fauna with signs that humans may have targeted the larger male mammoths in an unsustainable way until eventually the female mammoths didn't have a stable social structure and a reliable source of breeding to support a population that essentially was slow to breed and took a long time to look after the one or two offsprings born every so many years. Once this happened, extinction was inevitable.

UPDATE
April 2017

Research work conducted by Dr Martin B. Sweatman, of the University of Edinburgh’s School of Engineering, has effectively sealed the case for a comet hitting the Earth as the most likely explanation after discovering another anomaly in the soil. This time platinum was found in higher concentrations than expected. But what really swayed the case in favour of the comet theory for North America is the discovery of what is the oldest known man-made stone carving showing a record of an important astronomical event. At first the symbols in the carving were interpreted as animals. Later, computer simulations of constellations in the sky for the time supporting the age of the carving through carbon-dating has pretty much confirmed the symbols represent a constellation in the sky and the arrival of a comet. Scientists were also able to pinpoint the date of the event that led to the comet hitting the Earth from the position of the symbols and computer modelling as well as carbon-dating of the carved stone to 10,950 B.C.

Following the impact, scientists remain confident that nomadic hunters in the Middle East had to adjust to a change in climate. Initially the vast areas of the Middle East grew wild wheat and barley with relative ease and a plentiful supply of water. After the impact, conditions in the Middle East got colder and drier. This forced humans to come together and figure out ways to grow and maintain the crops, through effective watering techniques and selective breeding. It is from this moment that farming began, allowing the rise of human civilisations as we know it today.

As Dr Sweatman summed up the work:

"I think this research, along with the recent finding of a widespread platinum anomaly across the North American continent, virtually seal the case in favour of (a Younger Dryas comet impact).

Our work serves to reinforce that physical evidence. What is happening here is the process of paradigm change.

It appears Göbekli Tepe was, among other things, an observatory for monitoring the night sky. One of its pillars seems to have served as a memorial to this devastating event – probably the worst day in history since the end of the ice age."

Details of this research can be found in Mediterranean Archaeology and Archaeometry (Volume 17, Number 1, pp.223-250), titled "Decoding Gobekli Tepe with Archaeoastronomy: What Does the Fox Say?"

In the meantime, more land in Europe started to free up from the ice and snow. Soon humans started seeing the benefits of living further away from the equator and not have to migrate quite as much to find food. From this came the establishment of invisible boundaries around territories and later nations become necessary in order to help protect resources and people's homes.

10,500- 10,000 YEARS AGO

Interestingly, a study of some great civilisations such as the Aztecs have revealed fascinating stories of a great flood occurring at this time. Not surprising. The ice sheets were melting and sea levels were rising. It makes sense. As the stories indicate, some civilisations were thought to have been destroyed and new ones formed as a result of the great flood sweeping across different parts of the world. If there is any truth to these stories (and why would we doubt them?), it would seem as though some people were oblivious to the impending disaster heading towards them. Goes to show how focused the people were on their own lives and the petty things they were doing within their own village or societies that they could not develop a science and a bigger picture of the environment to tell them what was happening over time.

Despite the presence of certain environmental disasters, prehistoric man at the end of the last Ice Age continued to hunt and gather food and lived in groups of between 20 and 100 individuals, averaging about 40 people. On rare occasions, some groups in different parts of the world would swell to great numbers (approximately 10,000 people) forming what are crudely known as human civilisations. Human population throughout the world probably didn't exceed 5 million.

"At the end of the Pleistocene, there was a dramatic warming of the climate that had very important ecological consequences. First, the polar ice caps melted back significantly as well as the continental ice sheets. This raised ocean levels and isolated North America from east Asia, and also isolated Japan and parts of Indonesia from the Asian land mass. This allowed genetic drift to create new forms of new species in these different areas. At the same time, cold-adapted animals  particularly the large mammals such as the Mammoths  no longer had an environment in which they could survive and they became extinct, perhaps helped by human hunting. In other parts of the world, however, increases in temperature generated much bigger increases in biomass. Animal and plant productivity increased and this created important opportunities for humans." (Quote from the French documentary film Homo Sapiens: He Domesticates Nature produced by France 3 Production Sud-Ouest, France 5 TSR RTBF, To Do Today Productions (Belgium), CAB Productions (Switzerland), Productions Pixcom (Canada), Ballistic Pictures (South Africa), Tang Media (China), Danit Rossner (Israel). 2004.)

Michael S. Bisson. (Image from the French documentary film Homo Sapiens: He Domesticates Nature, 2004. ).

UPDATE
April 2017

Professor Alexander Tollmann from the institute of geology at the University of Vienna has studied numerous myths of a great flood, recorded in almost every prehistoric civilisation. The timing for these myths seem to coincide with the geological evidence for a comet impact in North America. The flood has led to many islands and caves being filled with ancient bones showing a great catastrophe had occurred in our distant past.

10,000 YEARS AGO

The last of the Wolly Mammoths, Wolly Rhinos, Bisons, and the Sabre-Toothed cats died out. The comet impact had certainly affected the mega-fauna with the potential of some mass extinctions in North America. However, in Europe and Russia, the case is less compelling. Something else had put an end to the largest animals. Now we can safely say that the largest mega-fauna mammals of the Ice Age era were already on the stone age dinner plates of various human groups existing at this time. Combined with a slow reproductive rate of these animals and the appetite for these creatures had not waned on the tastebuds of meat-eating humans in the slightest despite a fairly substantial change in climate worldwide. And how can we forget the likelihood that humans were growing in numbers and finding more efficient and effective ways of hunting some animals for food and perhaps for pleasure (or sacrifice to the gods in the hope of hunting more animals). Once the main food supply was gone, it can easily bring down with it other species in the ecology.

UPDATE
13 May 2006

A poorly reported study in The Canberra Times (forcing readers to check the Nature edition for names of scientists involved in the work and their official quotes) claims carbon-dating of more than 600 bones from bison, wapiti, moose, humans, wild horses and mammoths recovered from Alaska and the Yukon Territory suggest that the timing for human habitation was either a little late (the fossils for humans in these regions seem to point to a figure of around 12,300 years ago and certainly not earlier) or left very little time for humans to cause the extinction of an animal such as the Wolly Mammoths. Scientists are inclined to believe the extinction was probably due to natural climate change. In other words, 2,300 years is considered not enough for humans to cause the demise of a large animal such as the Wolly Mammoths in reasonable numbers. The scientists of this study, however, are putting the decline of the Wolly Mammoths at closer to 11,800 years ago, rather than 10,000 years ago. We assume this is from the fossil records. So we are left with a time frame of say 500 years for humans to do the damage.

Is it possible? Yes. We know the reproductive rates of these animals are not high, and the numbers of these animals were not exactly great. And humans were on the rise, in both numbers and efficiency in hunting down the big cumbersome prey. But is it probable? It all depends on how many humans were around, the type of humans and hunting techniques employed, what the land was like as the ice melted, and the kind of diet these humans had (was it more meat, or did it contain plant materials?), how many animals remained etc. In the case of human diet, we can safely assume most humans had a taste for meat.

Actually the study doesn't entirely discount the possibility that humans could have had an impact. It just suggests the available human bone fragments put them at a time where it seems there was little time for whatever number of humans were around to have created the damage, assuming, of course, that the animals existed in large numbers (which they probably weren't). But it isn't impossible. Furthermore, these humans could have been living in those areas where the bones were found at an earlier time. And any animals killed by humans need not have to be entirely for food. Perhaps some humans were trying to prove how much of a man they were by killing enough Wolly Mammoths and other animals?

As for the warming of the planet starting from 13,000 years ago, one would think this would have favoured the existence of these larger animals with extra grass. Some scientists are not too sure. They have suggested the possibility of muddy grasslands and this would be an impediment for larger animals trying to escape predators, including humans.

So why not migrate to warmer and less muddy regions? Or travel closer to the poles? Animals would surely take an easier route so long as there is food beneath the snow (for Wolly Mammoths, they would use their long tusks to scrap off the snow to reveal the grass underneath). It would explain why these creatures had continued to survive during the previous colder Ice Ages and interglacial periods.

Now some scientists are certain humans did have an impact after realising these larger animals were genetically predisposed to producing very few offsprings, and a number of bones from these animals show signs of spears that had been thrown at the animals by humans. If human populations expanded in the warmer interglacial period and hunted in greater numbers the remaining adult Wolly Mammoths (or even the offsprings), then there may be little time for these animals to fully recover and produce enough surviving offsprings to maintain its own population.

It is likely this is how the last of the Wolly Mammoths had died out.

9,800 - 6,000 YEARS AGO

For a couple of thousand years after the end of the last Ice Age (certainly by 9,800 years ago), food was considered in plentiful supply even by human standards (even if animals of the mega-fauna variety had been wiped out at this time). Humans merely had to walk a short distance to gather food across the countryside without too much difficulties. In the more seasonal temperate zones, humans would migrate to warmer regions during the winter to continue the tradition of gathering food, including plant-based materials such as seeds from grasses and certain fruits. However, by around 8,000 years ago, there is plenty of evidence to show humans were minimising this extra work of travelling to different places.

For a number of humans, no more migrating every year as dictated by the seasons. Also the fear of losing valuable territory to the extra competition from other humans roaming the countryside became too great. With enough similar thinking individuals doing the same thing, this would be the origins of countries and the establishment of borders. The Neolithic Age had truly arrived with a solid stone-age thud. Whatever the cause for staying in one spot, it forced humans to see the incredible usefulness of cultivating specific plants and breeding certain types of animals kept in an enclosed paddock or penn to help maximise and stabilise the food supply for humans in a specific region. Among the foods being cultivated and bred extensively for humans around 8,000 years ago include wheat, rice, oats, barley, cattle, chickens and goats to name a few.

Humans were also learning to store grains to last the cold winters while staying in one spot. An effective solution to not having to migrate to warmer lands. Just so long as humans had access to enough wood from the forests to burn just to keep warm, it should pose no significant problems for humans surviving on a given territory for a long time (or while humans think there is an endless supply of wood in the forests).

It was also at this time that another anomalous rise in the levels of two greenhouse gases in the atmosphere  in particular, methane and carbon dioxide  began. These gases prevented what would have been, as the scientists have come to accept as, the next expected cooling of the planet and possibly another Ice Age starting around 5,000 years ago according to recent computer models of world climate over the past 400,000 years. Except something has been increasing the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, thereby ending any chances of establishing another ice age any time soon. Indeed, even today, scientists are certain we have entered the warmest period of the planet's history in more than 1 million years.

So what exactly is causing world temperatures to increase?

Did humans suddenly evolve into a new species known as Homo Flaturectumus? Highly unlikely. Even if humans could have caused this abundance in greenhouse gases through massive flatulence, it would have required a massive surge in population growth and a massive consumption of (mostly plant-based) foods. Or were the cattle, chickens and other farm animals generously contributing vast amounts of the greenhouse gases? Certainly methane is 22 times more potent in trapping heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide. And humans would have needed to produce more animals for food. On top of that, we do know cows (a domesticated animal in the Neolithic Age) can produce considerable amounts of methane than humans.

Or what about the cutting down of trees and the burning of wood by humans? The smoke might act as a cooling mechanism in the initial stages to prevent sunlight from reaching the ground, but once it clears up, what remains is the extra carbon dioxide to warm the planet.

There has even been talk of some massive volcanic eruptions in Europe and Indonesia that could help to contribute to some of the carbon dioxide. However, scientists have calculated the total contribution from volcanoes over the past 10,000 years is at most about 2 per cent of all the carbon dioxide on the planet. A far greater contributor to global warming is hiding among us.

Whatever the cause, evidence to support the increase in the two important greenhouse gases by around 5,000 years ago comes from precise measurements into the types and amount of each gas found present in the ancient atmosphere through tiny ancient air bubbles trapped in the Antarctic ice. As Professor Bill Ruddiman of the University of Virginia said during a meeting of the American Geophysical Union on Tuesday 9 December 2003:

"[An analysis of the gases trapped in the ice shows] You have 395,000 years of history, which sets some rules, and 5000 years that break those rules." (2)

The observations indicate methane and carbon dioxide were on the rise at this time. Ruddiman has suggested one possible reason for the increase. Humans were affecting the climate in a slow and steady rate over a period of 3,000 years because of the way they were organising their natural environment nearly 8,000 years ago. He believes it is possible the clearing of forests, planting crops, and raising livestock were integral to explaining the anomalous rise in greenhouse gases.

8,000 - 7,000 YEARS AGO

We know life got a little easier for people thanks to the sudden increase in food supplies during the start of this interglacial period. People working together to farm the land grew more livestock and grains. For some long-term thinking humans, it was also an opportunity to store and preserve as much of the excess foods as possible for a rainy (or cold) day. An excellent decision when maximising one's survival. But it also brought about another unexpected benefit: some people would learn to exchange some of these supplies for other things produced by other humans. Soon trade became an integral part of human life. Trade is the means by which people can acquire, sell and buy (or barter) foods, tools, clothing and other services from a central point (usually within easy distance from a major population centre and/or food producing area where the source of the materials to grow or make the products are easy to obtain).

Among the new and valuable materials being discovered and made available for trade at this time include a rare and one of the hardest substances on Earth called obsidian formed by lava cooling rapidly. Because of its hardness and durability, this glass-like material was fashioned into cutting implements considered more sharper and tougher than stone implements. Its use to protect humans from other humans or a range of other dangerous animals quickly became legendary and considered the hi-tech solution at this time. On a less violent note, this was also the material for making the world's first artificial and portable mirrors for humans to look at themselves (3). Not such a bad idea considering humans were having an increasing influence on the environment. Hopefully humans are smart enough to know what they are doing before it is too late.

8,000 YEARS AGO

While considerable care must be taken not to assume everything written in the Bible is factually and historically correct, there are enough examples and connections to geological events and certain archaeological artefacts (such as clay tablets) to make one re-think this position. Among the interesting stories mentioned in the Bible include the "great flooding" (as one would expect to see as the Ice Age ends and sea level rises), the mass exodus of people in Egypt at a time the biggest volcanic eruption in the latest 10,000 years had occurred on the island of Santorini, and the appearance of a rather unusual young and charismatic man in the Middle East with exceptional knowledge of:

the principle of love (knowing that this will be essential for any star-venturing civilisation encountering other civilisations in the universe);

the concept of God (or to be more precise, it is the thing that is in common with all matter, although there is some confusion and mix-up among our fellow human beings between the concepts of God and god, with the latter being someone who can influence someone else); and

a vision of where society should be heading (i.e., the Kingdom of God),

while at the same time providing his own medical insights into healing common ailments in the people at the time.

The increasing archaeological and geological evidence in support these amazing stories means that we must consider them as potentially useful information in understanding our history in a more complete way. If we don't, we could be missing out on some rather important discoveries, and even the possible connections to something else that might be having an external influence on our affairs, no matter how unbelievable it may seem.

The first story worthy of discussion is certainly one of the most controversial. Being such an old story that has survived through the millennia, very few historians would consider it as worthy of inclusion into a timeline mainly because there is not enough proof, and there is a strange entity that keeps appearing in the story to make some scientists question the reliability of the story. Yet other scientists today are becoming aware of what's out there in the Universe. Furthermore, they do know there was a place in Mesopotamia in the Middle East where gardens were in abundance. Seems logical considering some influential and leading females in human society may have an eye for beauty as well as an acceptance of the practicalities of good farming when growing foods on the land. Certainly one thing is fairly certain. The Middle East back then was nothing like the deserts we see today. It was a time when the area had enough moisture from the rains, flowing rivers, and a number of lakes to allow large and beautiful gardens to exist, most of which were looked after by a number of people living in the area. Little maintenance was probably required thanks to the prevailing rains on certain days, a land shaped to capture enough water to form lakes, a number of rivers could be seen flowing to direct excess water to the sea, and a handful of dedicated gardeners that made sure the trees and bushes grew well. And all the while, trees, shrubs, and some grasses could grow with remarkable ease.

It is around this time that we find the first story in the Bible relating to what some religious leaders describe as the first encounter of humans in the garden with a mysterious entity called God.

"God? How preposterous!", you might say. "Surely God is a figment of our imagination."

Not so fast. We need to be very careful not to throw the "baby out with the bathwater" in such matters. Just because we do not understand something does not mean it does not exist. Sure, there are great questions surrounding this strange entity and what it is. Today, with increasingly greater insights and advances in our scientific knowledge and technology, it is possible to bring together a little more realism to this concept of (or entity representing) God and the stories in the Bible. If we leave aside the most likely explanation for God at a conceptual level as the thing that is in common in all matter and energy, at a more physical level, the term God used by humans could quite easily be an example of an extraterrestrial civilisation(s) that is keen to teach and influence humankind to follow a path with a heart and learn other important concepts as needed to ensure the long time preservation of the Earth and all its inhabitants, and its ultimate implications in terms of how we should meet other civilisations in the universe should we one day uncover the electromagnetic technology to take us to the stars and see what is actually out there.

Sounds too incredible? Well, maybe not.

Sure, we do have scientists who are not sure what to make of this God. In most cases, the simplest solution would be to ignore it and assume the stories in the Bible are not true. It is a cop out because we don't have to do much work to find out and determine the probability of such stories as having occurred in reality. Now, with more archaeological evidence emerging to support a number of the stories, other scientists are prepared to be a little more cautious. Assuming the stories in the Bible do have some kind of relationship to historical fact, we still have this niggling issue of a strange entity. Why God? What's the purpose of having God in our stories to explain things when really the essence of the story to preserve animals and plants and be kind to one another is all we ever need to know about? It makes sense just to focus on the outcome of what it is we need to learn and remember and dispense with this idea of God. Just having God in the stories just makes it harder for the more rational types, such as scientists, to consider the stories in a more unbiased way. Unless God itself is meant to teach us another concept, the most one can see from having God is like that of a parent to a child. To stop a child being unruly and misbehaving, you need a parent to set things straight, to keep an eye on the child to see if he/she is doing the right thing, and whether to interfere again if the teachings were not done right the first time. Interestingly, we do see this God coming back in a number of stories over time. Does this mean we are not learning very well the concepts coming from God?

Or else, to the more rational scientists, God could be just a way for simple-minded people to describe certain things they don't understand or know enough about to make any kind of conclusion. Better to conjure up a term called God and leave it at that, and the rest can be a discussion of the stories and the ideas they teach to the next generation. But then that would support something mysterious in the stories. Far better not to mention God unless people actually saw something that made them believe in God.

Did people see God at this time?

It isn't just once. Observations of something mysterious influencing people have been repeated. Certain events in history and revealed in the stories are providing further details of something more unusual. At the very least, the presence of God during this "biblical" time in the Middle East is revealing some form of intelligence. A voice is heard and ideas are transferred in an intelligible way that humans can understand. At the same time, it is an intelligence that keeps coming down from the skies, principally in a cloud-like formation and often with lights described as angels flying around, and soon thereafter a voice or an unusual individual who has descended suddenly appears and is talking to a select few humans. The voice or individual does not like to be given a name. It does not want to be called God even if humans are keen to find a word to describe and name this mysterious entity. The most this thing wants to do is influence world events at a local level and share certain concepts with those select humans considered wise, old and trustworthy in human society. If just one or two young people had made a mention of this entity to others, one could write them off as probably a form of hallucination. Hallucinatory drugs were common in those days as a means for some men to relax, understand the purpose of death, and gain other insights into the universe. Why not extend it to creating a God of the Universe? Only problem is, there are quite a few people in the Bible who have allegedly seen and/or heard this God. Both men and women have experienced this mysterious entity. And not all are young people. Might be a good idea for scientists to be a little more open-minded on the God issue no matter how incredible it might seem.

Too hard to imagine a God in our history?

Why would it be hard? It is clear something is coming down from the skies, is intelligent, and can communicate to some humans certain important concepts. What makes it so outrageous to consider the possibility of an extraterrestrial civilisation(s) having visited the Earth in the best and influencing some humans? Astronomers know the Universe must have Earth-like planets orbiting other stars. It is highly unlikely that we are alone. The Universe is far too big and old for just one Earth to harbour intelligent life (i.e., our own). To believe the Earth is the only special place to harbour life would be like thinking the Earth is flat and we are the only favoured beings in all of God's creation. Why us? What makes us more special than any other living thing on Earth and the rest of the universe? For all we know, we could be the ugliest two-legged creatures God has ever seen and a more favoured and prettier human-like species could be living on another planet. We are just another animal in the zoo of the universe and Earth is our enclosure, and the prettier species are probably watching us, seeing how we behave and do certain things. If anything, we are the freaks of nature, not the favoured and prettiest creature made in the image of God. Really, why are we so hung up about how special we are to God? We are certainly no more special than the insects that also roam the Earth. And why would the Earth be the only place to harbour life? Scientists are confident of finding countless life-bearings worlds around other Sun-like stars nearby. And we have millions of Sun-like stars just in the Milky Way alone. Add to this the innumerable galaxies throughout the universe and it would be like saying in a field grown with millet only one seed will grow. How likely could this be in a fertile universe containing countless planets and Sun-like stars? On the basis of probability, it is highly unlikely we are alone. There is more than enough time for other Earth-like planets to evolve highly intelligent beings with the ability to develop a technology. We are just the new kids on the block with our own technology. And we are fast approaching an understanding of the electromagnetic technology that will send humans to the stars at high speeds like we have never achieved before. We are so close to joining the galactic society of intelligent human-like beings out there. But just a little too dumb to realise it as yet.

The reality is, too many scientists today are taking on the view that intelligent, technological life must be out there, waiting to be discovered. If you need convincing of the indirect evidence we already have to show the confidence scientists have for ETs, click here.

When we combine this with a little known concept in electromagnetism of moving charged objects at exponential speeds through the emission of radiation, we can finally appreciate that there is a way for intelligent beings in the Universe to venture out to the stars. For further details, click here.

So the next question is, "How likely is it that these people could decide to influence human affairs if they choose to reach our planet?"

It is understandable that highly rational scientists would prefer a heavy reliance on their eyes to help them denounce a God entity. Basically for these scientists it is a question of direct evidence. If they can't see the direct evidence firsthand, surely God does not exist. However, as astronomer Dr Carl Sagan once said, "Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence." It is the same with UFOs having clear electromagnetic side-effects and observations that humans today continue to report to the authorities. Scientists can't grab one of these objects to find out what they are and discover how real. Likewise, we know there must be intelligent life out there with a technology, and again we cannot see the radio communications or other evidence to prove their existence. It still does not mean they do not exist. What if these people of the stars choose not to communicate with us most of the time? The cone of silence could be on us and we are sitting here thinking why we can't find them and talk to them. It doesn't take a genius to figure this one out. It is probably because we are still unable to learn certain concepts of how to live harmoniously with other living things on our planet and not just our fellow human beings. So what chance do we have of meeting up with the other people from the stars in a way that gives them absolute confidence that we have properly learned the principle of love? Just look at our environment. For example, are we treating the fish in the plastic-infested oceans with kindness and the ability to allow the fish to grow, learn from its environment, and be happy without us interfering with it, either for food or as a waste dump for all our own selfish activities? If we can't care for our own fish and we have to see it die when it ingests our plastic, it is far better for us not to meet up with one of these aliens who do know a thing or two about the principle of love.

We still have no idea what the principle of love is really all about.

As a result of this insight, sometimes it is better to be more open-minded. The good thing is, there are more open-minded scientists on the planet than there are by way of highly rational and narrow-minded scientists. These broad-minded individuals with a solid background in science are prepared not to be so dismissive of the God connection compared to those conservative and highly rational scientists who prefer to see everything with their own eyes (and even then they may still doubt what they see). Together with a sense of curiosity, being open-minded should be a noble quality of all good scientists if they wish to become great scientists  the ability to consider other possibilities beyond what they can see with their eyes.

Alright then. Where do we stand in relation to this God figure? How confident can we state that God is probably coming down from the sky in an attempt to frighten children and get some adults into doing the right thing knowing someone is out there watching them all the time? The Bible is revealing enough stories to show there are enough people who have become aware of this God arriving in a large cloud, appearing on the ground in some obscure image such as a burning bush and saying certain things to the humans. And why wouldn't God do it in an attempt to influence human affairs in some subtle way? If one is prepared to travel such a great distance to reach us, one should make the most from the visit. Anything you don't like? See if you can change it. The only thing is, to change something means you must have an intimate understanding of the principle of love. You are trying to change a potentially intelligent and somewhat backward species called humans. You have to know what you are doing for this change to have a chance of being successful. Remarkably this is one of the key observations made by people in the past of God. Whatever God is, it looks as if it does have some understanding of the principle of love, but it isn't perfect.

For example, the stories reveal a conscious decision by God to choose predominantly old men to carry certain ideas to the rest of humanity. Why men? What is wrong with women? At the same time, the voice of God seems invariably male according to the observers. Is this because the selected old men were afraid to mention it sounded like a woman because no one would listen to them, even if God is mentioned? Not likely. The voice of God would always be listened no matter what the gender. Perhaps this is an indication of the state of human societies and how men were considered the dominant gender at the time. God felt it was necessary to use a male voice presumably because it would carry greater weight and more likely to be listened to by human males. Yet this conscious decision to focus on men by God and to use a male voice puts it in an irreconcilable position. A true God does not discriminate. Irrespective of using a male voice or a female voice when speaking to humans, or whether women carried the message or not, a true God would use neither gender specific voice, or choose to balance the situation with a female voice at different times because all living things should always listen to God. At the same time, a true God would not leave out women when passing on knowledge. Gender should make no difference. However, by choosing to consistently use a male voice to influence the humans if the old men with the stories are anything to go by, there seems to be a concern or concerted effort to choose the option that God thinks will provide the most impact in influencing human societies. Does not sound like a true God, but a god with sophisticated abilities that must make choices when deciding how to influence humans.

Another good reason to consider the claims of a mysterious God coming down from the skies to influence human affairs as potentially originating from some extraterrestrial origin, in this case another civilisation(s). Nothing supernatural about it. We are just being more realistic with what we know and expect to be true from the latest observations of stars, and keep it level-headed on the God concept too. And while we are at it, we can explain why astronomers haven't seen these people from the stars coming down to tell humanity of their existence. The principle of love would normally forbid them given our state of social development. It would probably require them to avoid interfering in our affairs in order to preserve our culture and so make us feel safe.

All makes perfect sense.

The only thing is, God must have looked upon us on this planet and somehow felt compelled to interfere in a subtle way with certain individuals in the Middle East. Choosing one wise and old male individual for each encounter was probably a good choice. Otherwise there would be chaos and people would live in constant fear and panic about what God is doing and its intentions for this planet knowing it can arrive at any time. However, at the same time, it does reveal another interesting discovery: it sounds like a lot of humans were not doing things right. Failure to follow the principle of love by all must have been, and appears to be still prevalent to this today, a repeating and major theme throughout our long history on this planet.

So while it is easy to dismiss the Bible stories out of hand as just story-telling from creative people, we should be cautious not to ignore them as being totally fanciful and outrageous. We are an ignorant lot and there is so much we don't know about our true past and the universe around us. It is probably best to bring together what we know from the stories in the Bible and relate them as best we can to known geological events in history and human development over the last 10,000 years, available archaeological evidence, and what is possible using science in the 21st century and beyond. For who knows what we may discover along the way. Perhaps there is something else we should consider in our long history. Better to be prepared and aware of such stories in the Bible than to leave them out completely and miss out on an important aspect of who we are.

Okay. Well, we have the first story in the Bible concerning two humans who appeared in a garden on Earth. The place was aptly named the Garden of Eden.

As the story goes, God allegedly created two humans. Or were they already around, initially as orphaned children? Depending on how we define the true God, maybe all humans were and will always be created by God based on whatever is in common in the matter and energy constituting our bodies. It could be just a play on words and an effective story-telling tool to start things off. There has to be a beginning, so why not mention God at the start of the story? However, if God is meant to be a technologically advanced "god(s)", then how would the humans be created? Cloning techniques to create a human couple is one possibility. Or did God have sexual relations with someone and later produced two offsprings, with the male human being the first followed by the female. Or if the concept of God is much more broader and relates to the unifying force and energy lying at the heart of all matter, then technically everything in the universe, including humans, was already made by God. So the two humans could have been children whose parents have died. Who knows? It is all pure conjecture.

The order in which these humans appeared should also not matter (at least not in today's society). Like we don't treat a newborn boy who comes out first any differently than a girl who comes out second or vice versa, balance should always prevail for both genders and thus treated equally. Just as God does not discriminate, so too should we do the same. It just so happens the Bible tells us that it was a male who appeared first followed by a female, but this could be like asking what came first, the chicken or the egg? Someone has to start first. The choice of a male to start the process could well be a decision by the story-teller to start the story off. Or else the person was influenced by his own gender to think males should be the ones to start first. Or was it because God's first encounter with humans began with a male human? Or did God decide to perform a genetic experiment and made the decision to try a male first before introducing the female? It probably does not matter.

Now we have a situation where the couple, allegedly named Adam and Eve, were permitted to live in what was effectively a paradise. Whether the couple knew this would require some comparing with something else to know it was a paradise is hard to tell. It did not seem the couple venture far from the garden. Why would they? A paradise is all humans ever need to survive and be happy, or so God thought. There is no indication from the Bible that the couple saw the place as anything special. It looks like the couple had no experience of a different environment. About the only other thing we can glean from this story is that we have a very big garden. Too big for the couples to wander off and reach the edge of the garden.

As the paradise was effectively a garden, we can safely assume trees grew in relative abundance. Talk later of the couple hiding from God suggest that the trunks of the trees were quite large (with the trees themselves well-established, at a certain mature age, and bearing reasonable amounts of fruits to keep the couples thoroughly well-nourished) and/or there was a prevalence of thick bushes in various parts of the garden. And where there are plants, there should be water. Makes sense so far. As far as the food was concerned, the humans only needed to be vegetarians by sticking to a diet of eating fruits, grains and any other plant-based material. Not as bad as it sounds (so long as Eve had knowledge of herbs and cooking to make the food more tasty and provide variety), except God had one simple rule for the humans to follow. Sounds simple enough. Surely the couple could not stuff up this request from God, right? As the rule went, God would allow the humans free reign in the garden on the proviso that neither one eat the fruit of the forbidden tree. And it seems God pointed out the tree in question for the couple to see so that there would be no confusion. "You see it there? Good, now don't eat from it." as we can imagine God might say. Still, this did not stop Eve, the one who was most curious and the first to be tempted, from trying one of the fruits from the forbidden tree. And she would do it when God was not around just to see what was so special about the tree.

If you think this sounds like a test from God, you are not alone. In psychology labs, tests have been performed on children to see how they behave when left on their own in a room and given something tempting such as a cake on the table for them to look at. Even if just one child is in the room, the result at the end of the experiment is always the same. Basically, how it works is that you tell the child not to eat the cake. No matter how simple this rule might seem, it is inevitable, given enough time, to see the child eat a small portion of the cake when he/she thinks no one is watching and then tries to squeeze the cake together to make it look like he/she has not eaten it. Not long after, the adult returns and asks if the child has eaten the cake. The child will naturally deny it. When the adult looks at the cake and says it looks a little too small, the child will claim an invisible friend had eaten some of the cake. Keep pressing the issue and eventually the child will cave in and agree that he/she has eaten some of the cake. Well, the exact same thing was taking place in the Garden of Eden. In Eve's case, she needed to tempt her companion Adam to do the same. It is as if she needed to gain his support for what was effectively her decision, and at the same time give her an opportunity to point a finger at him should she get into trouble with God. Geez, thanks Eve! After much pestering, Adam eventually agreed, and both of them quietly crept up to the holy tree bearing the forbidden fruits, looked around, and when they thought God was not anywhere in sight (and with a little extra tempting from the snake in the tree in case the couple expressed some doubts), ate one of the forbidden fruits. Naughty as they were, they could have got away with it considering it would be hard for God to know for sure what had happened (unless God is like the psychologist in the laboratory watching the children in the room from a distance). Plenty of fruit on the tree would easily cover up the evidence of the couple's wrong-doing so long as God was lousy at maths and couldn't count, and the couple could keep quiet and acted normally like nothing ever happened. However, what the couple discovered and had not anticipated was the effect the fruit had on them, and they couldn't act normally because of it. It looks as if their brains did not have the sufficient time and adequate size to digest all the knowledge and use it in a way to help get them out of any new problems they were seeing. They experienced for the first time something they never had before. They acquired so much knowledge that the first thing it did was make themselves self-conscious of how they looked to each other. No doubt they were naked. Yet it never crossed their minds to think why, other than the fact that it was very warm in the garden, so no clothes were needed. Indeed, they had never thought about this very issue of their appearance until now, and so revealing how totally innocent and child-like the couple were, even right down to not knowing the purpose of their sex organs and why a woman's breasts were now looking so suddenly appealing to the man. Even the woman was having thoughts about that thing dangling between the man's legs and wondered, "Hmmm, I wonder what that might feel like". Well, instead of having sex and finding out, this excess knowledge was too much for them. Not knowing how to handle the emotions, the couple decided together that they would wear large fig leaves to preserve their modesty and so avoid playing around with each other in more intimate ways. We now know the garden had plenty of figs, so that's an interesting insight. At any rate, there was a problem for the couple's decision to hide their modesty from each other. They had suddenly lost their child-like innocence. This turned out to be their undoing. Because when God returned, the couple did not know how to lie to God and take the risk to see if they can get away with it (well, not likely if God is a psychologist watching the experiment at a safe distance. You might as well be honest with God, right?). Seriously, it wasn't really hard to figure out. God did not even have to count the fruits on the tree to discover anything amiss, or watch the couple fornicate like wild rabbits in the garden (and so risk overpopulating the garden with too many humans after a period of time). Although it would probably be preferable to fornicate because at least then you didn't have to explain why they had to wear large figs. One could argue that they had reached an age of sexual maturity and physical readiness that the idea just simply popped into their heads, coincidentally at the same time. So what are they to do? Might as well find out what it feels like. In which case, God might be totally understanding of the situation. But that was not how it went. The couples thought the fig leaves would solve all their strange sexual urges. Unfortunately for the couple, it also revealed something else. God must have known as soon as it saw the fig leaves hanging on the bodies of the two humans. But in case there was an innocent explanation, such as the couple wanting to play around by wearing these leaves just for a bit of harmless fun and to see what they look like, God asked them why they covered themselves. The couple were not very good liars. If only the couple came up with a brilliant story like the snake had forced them to eat the forbidden fruit while they were tied behind their backs by the snake (well, the snake did have a big enough brain to talk in the language of the couple, and it had limbs prior to God punishing the snake by later forever forcing it to slither on the ground, so surely it could manipulate the environment). Just throw in some evidence of broken twine or rope at the base of the forbidden tree and some marks on the wrists and God would have to believe the couple's story. The words of two people corroborating on each other will probably go down better than the word of a snake, unless God was hiding among the trees and had recorded the whole scene to show the couples what had happened. Unfortunately for the couple, they couldn't handle the knowledge to be God and use it appropriately, and not just to find a plausible explanation to get them out of their predicament. Nor did they have the imagination to find at least one good explanation to escape punishment either. As a result, the truth came out faster than you can say, "OMG!" and this led to the fall of man from God’s grace and banishment from paradise.

Then again, it is always possible such a story was designed by a crafty story-teller (in this case Moses) to explain certain other things about humans and as such could have absolutely no bearing on any real event in history. For example, the story-teller could be trying to explain to others the role men and women in society at the time (and whether, controversially speaking, it should continue to this day). Certainly in those days after the Adam and Eve story was told, men had to work hard to get back into God’s good books. We call them religious leaders (mainly Jewish men). And if they were lucky to do so and have worked hard by being pure, these men may receive some more insights from God, but not for women because of what Eve done. Only men were permitted to follow this path to God. And the way to do this was for men to avoid the seven deadly sins, including any form of temptation from women (hence the belief in Jewish religious leaders never having sex, and why celibacy for priests had to be maintained in modern Christianity). Regarding the woman from the story and all subsequent women, it seems the punishment for disobeying God’s rule was to bear the pain of childbirth, but more was to come. It seems men would also punish women by making them less important in areas involving decision-making and in not receiving the religious knowledge pertaining to God. All this was used to explain why in Jewish and Christian religious communities the males had to be the dominant gender, at least for religious reasons although it has expanded into other areas far more than it should.

Good news! Today, the role of the genders is changing as it should. Balance is returning to human society. No longer are we following traditions of early Christianity and Jewish laws. Probably a good thing considering such a move should bring greater balance to society and with it a closer experience of the true nature of God in all its glory once we see the power of balance. It is something for which one wise young man from the Middle East born to a virgin mother was already aware of and trying to bring balance by teaching a woman to think and communicate in all the logical rigours of religious discussions like a man.

Further details about this interesting young man to be discussed later in this page.

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Nevertheless, there is another message to be learned from the story of Adam and Even. God, or whoever created the story, if it is based on real life experiences, could be trying to teach humans that whilst the goal of a perfect life can seem alluring and almost within reach, living a perfect life all the time has its pitfalls. The most obvious one being that when humans are constantly served on a platter everything one could possibly desire for survival (in the case of Adam and Eve, the trees provided the fruits for their eating pleasure and needs), they tend to get lazy, eventually bored, and soon they look for something else to make life more interesting and perhaps meaningful. It does not matter if someone of standing and authority (such as God) tells them whether something is not meant for them. They will see no boundary to acquiring something they think they should be entitled to. They feel like they want to be God themselves, but in reality there can be only one God. And given how limited our brain capacity is and our ability to acquire and understand all the knowledge, we are effectively children in the universe constantly trying to learn why we are here. If we are given the complete knowledge, we are not mature and smart enough to know how to use the knowledge wisely for the benefit of everyone and all living things. The only way to become more mature is to establish goals and work towards them. Then we can learn a thing or two about the principle of love. Without these goals of a meaningful and positive nature of benefit to everyone to work towards (it is something each human must decide for him/herself what those goals should be and how feasible it is to be achieved), humans start to become what religious people called "corrupt". They will do anything to have what they want and quickly lose sight of what is right or wrong, or why they are here in this universe. Soon they forget the principle of love and what it means to help people and achieve great things for one another. It does not matter if certain actions can affect other people in a negative way. A corrupt person will usually not listen and improve his/her ways if told the actions are not right. The corrupt person will pursue the actions for his/her own gratification and without due regard to the feelings and harm being created to others.

As the story is suggesting, this "corrupt" nature appears to be an inevitability outcome for all living things that follow this "perfect life" route unless we set goals and reach for them. People without worthwhile goals, especially those designed to promote love, and instead live a perfect stress-free environment where everything is offered to them on a platter will eventually fall into this trap.

This is the thing. Corrupt people cannot focus on the true reality behind God's kingdom, and why we are here. In this kingdom, the only hierarchy is between God and the people. No other hierarchy should be present, even between living things and humans. In human societies, all humans are leaders in their own right when they learn something and become experts in their own fields, and they all should be treated equally and with respect no matter what. No one human is greater than another. That is why we treat people who are experts in cleaning things (i.e., "the cleaners") the same and with respect as a person who is an astronaut. We all need everyone to play their part to help get us closer to this ideal world for all to benefit. Not so for the corrupt person. Rather, the corrupt person will raise his/her own importance to the level of a king (or even try to be God) in their own contrived kingdom. They will then believe, from this position of power within the kingdom, that they are entitled to receive anything they want, and even to treat others as they like no matter the level of harm it generates. It does not take long before greed sets in. It will be seen as perfectly acceptable. Trying to accumulate everything for the shear personal enjoyment by any means possible (even illegally) is certainly not outside the normal realms of these people. If corrupted people cannot immediately get what they want, they will be upset, chuck a tantrum like a child, and eventually employ any devious means of getting what they want. Corrupt people will do this because they think this is the only way to be happy. In reality, they are never truly happy. Unfortunately, they won't know it. They will keep trying to grab more things from others and the environment to get that false feeling of temporary happiness unless someone can stop them.

In addition to this, the corrupt person will see no other purpose to life other than to enjoy whatever it and this universe has to offer and not have to work for it or do anything to create those benefits and help others to enjoy and achieve certain goals with those benefits too. Without a purpose, the moment of death is the most frightening and hardest to accept and understand on the corrupt person because he/she cannot imagine or see the hidden patterns of the universe showing the cyclic nature of life and death and the re-birth expected of all living things as a normal part of how this universe actually works.

So while the issue of death is inevitable, the corrupt person will do all he/she can to prolong life by any means, and hopefully their own "gods" will revive them to continue their corrupt ways. He/she will also believe that there is nothing after death as a means of further justifying his/her actions in doing corrupt things in order to forget the inevitable, including replacing the thing that gives him/her fear with anything that brings pleasure and happiness. There is something missing in the corrupt person's life, but he/she can't seem to see what it is. But by then, the person has gone too far. And the likelihood of reversing the corruption may be too great. Unless the person can wake up from this warped view of reality, the planet really can't afford to harbour just one corrupt creature given its endless desire to get as rich as possible and acquire everything.

Now if this interpretation about the consequences of a "perfect life" for all living things is correct, then it would have important implications for humans today. As we shall see, enough humans are showing a level of corruption that is affecting life on Earth. Not even God would be pleased if it were to return today and see the state of the world as we are leaving it to our children.

Okay. So we can see from this first Bible story the likely existence of two humans roaming around in some great garden nearly 8,000 years ago. Not surprising. Archaeological scholars know there were great gardens in Mesopotamia back then. It is altogether possible such a story could have some truth. Unfortunately, the only difficulty scientists have at the moment is this thing called God and, of course, in not finding the archaeological evidence to prove the reality of this story to any level of confidence.

Never mind. We can al least gather some more insights about who or what this God is from the story itself. According to Genesis 3:8:

"They heard the sound of the Lord God as He was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden."

God is walking? Fascinating. God doesn’t fly or slither around, or suddenly materialise like we see in Star Trek. That should help us to narrow down what this entity is. In other stories, as we shall see later, sometimes it is a mysterious voice that can come out of nowhere (now where is that sophisticated drone hidden with its built in speakers and transmitter?). It is easy for scientists to think God is a hallucination as if some people could be suffering schizophrenia. However, we do find a passage in the Bible of one old man (i.e., Moses) who has allegedly seen God. No longer do we have a voice, but a shapely figure that humans can look upon and say exactly what it is. And so far, Moses isn't exactly running away from God. Indeed, his reaction isn't suggesting an entity of unimaginable shape and appearance. Seems more like just another person. The same goes for Adam and Eve each time they meet God in the garden. If this is true, then this makes God kind of real and physical and seem, well, rather localised into a certain predictable and physical form with legs that isn't too dissimilar in appearance to ourselves (either that or it has to be a cute and cuddly creature that is too pretty for anyone to be frightened of it). And it is not a large physical form at that. The only problem with any localising of the physical form is that this effectively leaves the rest of the Universe not under the continuous control of the true God. This physical being cannot be everywhere at once and in control of everything. In that case, this has to be the first clearest hint from the Bible that we are dealing with a “god”, but not a true God.

Okay, let us continue.

We learn elsewhere in the Bible that people, especially those that have heard and/or seen God, often talk about God as being masculine. Why? The prophets would claim a male voice was heard. Yet we have to question why God should choose the gender for communicating if it is all-powerful and able to influence any living creature in the Universe? What's wrong with a powerful woman's voice? Or how about balancing it to form an androgynous voice? To choose a male voice must mean God is afraid the word spoken will not influence what was predominantly a male-dominated human society. In that case, the mere act of choosing a male voice effectively means we must be dealing with a "god". It is a god that is concerned about male-dominated human societies not listening to God if the voice is not masculine enough. Anything more we can learn?

The idea of God “walking through the garden” at the end of a hot day (it would explain why Adam and Eve were oblivious to the idea of wearing clothes and for a while to their own nakedness) might suggest a human-like entity in physical form. But any kind of creature with legs can literally “walk”. No further information can be gathered from this basic quote other than the fact that these wise old humans have not run away from God even when it is observed. Then we see in Genesis 3:9–10:

"But the Lord God called to the man and said, 'Where are you?'

The man answered, 'I heard you walking in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.' "

The reaction of Adam and Eve to the voice and later the sight of God walking in the garden and not responding in any negative way about God’s form and appearance is worthy of discussion. As we can see, the behaviour when they responded to God’s call (and possibly later seeing God) is not suggesting a creature of unimaginable body shape and/or size. In other words, we are not dealing with a monster, or an alien with bizarre features such as a big head, large eyes and all the rest (as we tend to associate with certain UFO occupants observed in modern times by some humans). We can safely assume God's appearance does not fall into this hideous category, or the two would have ran away and never spoken a word to God ever again. Instead, they were prepared to stay put, even with all the knowledge they had acquired after eating the forbidden fruit and realising their own nakedness (and presumably the true nature of God and how it appears), and eventually answer God’s questions. Sounds like God is a fairly ordinary looking bloke (or is it a woman?). Probably not unlike the small, vulnerable old man in the Wizard of Oz playing with his technology to make himself sound grand and all-powerful to the people, but in reality he is just like you and everyone else. Nothing out-of-the-ordinary. Given the reaction shown by the couple when God arrived, this is looking more like God has the same physical shape in the body and probably looked not too dissimilar to Adam and Eve.

For a modern context, even today's description of UFO occupants are invariably humanoid in shape. We can safely say that there are no strange octopus-shaped aliens, or creatures with two heads, flying in their own versions of an electromagnetic spacecraft. There are three main groups of humanoids that can be discerned from the UFO reports: the short, big-headed and usually large-eyed grey-skinned creatures with very thin bodies (as if they have removed their digestive tract or has been greatly simplified and the body has naturally evolved to be thin in response) and tend to be quiet or communicate very little with humans; another similar short-statured and thin-bodied group with more exotic looks such as very big ears and eyes and with webbed feet and hands, and who tend to be unusually playful and extremely curious; and a third group that looks remarkably human-like (some have been described as Scandinavian in appearance with white hair and skin, and being tall and thin). We know that the latter group of human-like aliens do communicate a lot more with humans during an abduction episode. Knowing these UFO cases do exist, maybe it is the latter group of people who have decided to make direct contact with humans? Whatever the truth, we probably should not be astonished by this discovery. Evolution and the desire for animals to survive and find solutions to difficult problems when pushed by the environment and/or their predators will always see the development of two arms to manipulate the environment and a technology at some point, and, of course, two legs to walk around for mobility. Any more limbs and the energy requirements would be too great. Nature has a way of minimising energy usage and getting rid of redundancy and stick to the essential limbs that do the job just as well if not better.

Being humanoid in shape while manipulating a technology may not be not a fluke of nature or oddity, but rather a common outcome of evolution given enough time.

Can we be sure God is humanoid, possibly human-like in appearance? About the only closest thing we do have to indicate a possible human-like form of God, assuming it is of a physical nature, is revealed in Genesis 1:26:

"Then God said, 'Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.' "

This quote is obtained from the NASV version of the Bible, updated in 1995. Note the word “image”. The term “image” is essentially another way of saying we must make an exact “copy”. This could be significant. It seems reasonable to see this term as referring to the physical shape and potentially how it looks. Nothing else would make sense. We are dealing with the physical attributes and not just the ability to communicate in our language. So if this is the case, then this strongly suggests God is human-like just as Adam and Eve were (perhaps with a little more knowledge, and a few sophisticated tools at its disposal). And just to add another layer of complication to this issue, we see that God is made to look like it is not alone (i.e., "Us"), according to the NASV. Are we to infer from this the possibility that multiple physical human-like entities of both feminine and masculine types are acting together as God to influence human affairs along the right path? Or else the only other explanation is that we could be dealing with further bias from whoever wrote the original text containing this quote. The original authors of the Bible have been written by men in the early stages (and no, God did not write it down as some Christian fundamentalists might like to believe) and, perhaps in modern times, by some women who are trying to balance the situation within the Bible.

Whether God is real and of humanoid form (and, therefore, should be better described as a "god(s)") with the ability to reach our planet and influence humankind in certain ways in the past, or else it is more of a reflection of our own bias in creating this story, it is certainly a great story-telling tool from the writer(s). It is the sort of thing that one would need to grab the interest and fascination of simple-minded folks to listen and learn new ideas through captivating and imaginative stories in biblical times.

Whether the Adam and Eve story is just that or represents a real event and an encounter with God, what we do know is that there is a place in Mesopotamia where the gardens were great and luscious at around 8,000 years ago, or even in earlier times. Sure, there are other places where a forest could exist and humans may have been roaming around enjoying the fruits on the trees. A classic example would be in the rainforests of South America or in central Asia. However, there is something artificial about "the garden" and the regular appearance of this mysterious "God" in the Middle East over the past 10,000 years to suggest that the story may have occurred in the Middle East. The one place scientists have found to strongly support a land containing many great gardens, mostly created by the hand of humans (but one cannot discount the possibility that a God may have come down and provided a helping hand to create a garden of its own in one corner of the land and allowed two humans to live in it) is in Mesopotamia. If there is any place such a story could have occurred, this would be as good as any.

7,000 to 7,500 YEARS AGO

The Black Sea made its grand and rather dramatic appearance on the Earth's grand stage sometime around this time when the Mediterranean Sea rose high enough to break through a wall of rock and soil of several miles in length. It is also quite feasible, being in an earthquake-prone region, that movements in the Earth's crust may have also contributed to the collapse of the wall by weakening it. The latter remains a matter of conjecture as there is no geological evidence left behind to explain how it happened. What we do know, however, is that the water was definitely rising and the Black Sea did get suddenly formed roughly 2,000 to 4,000 years after the Mediterranean Sea was created.

The location for this great flooding to form the Black Sea is rather interesting because it is believed this is the place where the fabled story of an old man named Noah, his few "chosen" people (mainly family members), and various animals he rounded up from the region, had survived a great flood thanks to his remarkable effort to build a large vessel described as the Ark.

Did such a story take place in reality? Or was it another great way for humans to teach the next generation of the importance of taking with them certain things to help survive major calamities, as well as the benefit of behaving in a good way and with love (if you want to be warned of a disaster)? Apart from knowing there was a flood leading to the formation of the Black Sea, we can only go by what's mentioned in the Bible. A dubious source? Perhaps. Still, the story has not changed for thousands of years by essentially Jewish men who are noted for using their memory to retain an exact copy of the story, word-for-word, without embellishment of any kind. As Father Dwight Longenecker, a pastor from South Carolina, USA, has observed among men in the Jewish community, he stated:

"A strict memorization of the Scriptures is part of the Jewish tradition. Jewish boys even today for their Bar Mitzvah have to memorize parts of the Scripture and are checked for it word by word. In the first century, with the scarcity of manuscripts, boys were taught to memorize the entire Old Testament, and to recite the accounts of the history of their people word for word."

Knowing this fact about Jewish men, the story might be worth mentioning. Indeed, if the story had been made-up by some creative genius as a means of entertaining simple-minded and less-educated children and adults alike for the sake of making a bit of money on the side and yet still managed to pass on an important message of how to survive disasters (relevant to today and in the future for any civilisation), the story would have changed many times over and been embellished with more elaborate and amazing scenes and by now we would know the story would be impossible to believe. Apparently this isn't the case (so long as we ignore the latest "over the top" Hollywood movie starring Russell Crowe having its more than fair share of the creative license applied to the story). The great effort to remember this story by many generations of people in its original form suggests that there could be some reality behind it (whether the more rational scientists like it or not).

If one could accept this story as having some basis in truth and related to an actual event, there is a more disturbing element to the story to be acknowledged: it concerns yet again the presence of a thing called God. Yep, it has come back again. How do we explain this thing called God? Good question. We could always go the totally supernatural way by depicting God (and its various "angels" designed to help God by being the eyes and ears of God and even to assist certain humans in achieving certain things) in all sorts of fancy CGI graphics as we have seen in Russell Crowe's Noah. Unfortunately, this will only confuse the matter further. Or for greater realism to this story while considering the possibility of a God guiding humans along the right path (given how many times this entity gets mentioned in the Bible), we could picture this story as someone out there in the sky wanting to influence human affairs. Or we could imagine the old man suffering schizophrenia. However, if the disaster is a genuine event, the timing to save himself and his family makes it unlikely. Someone must have helped the old man. Unfortunately the old man can only use the God excuse for how he did it.

If we can give this remarkable story in the Bible some credence, then it would appear that this old man called Noah probably lived in a highly fertile valley at the time. Everything was available in reasonable abundance to the point where he and other men (and women) probably never had to venture far. There was little need to see the world beyond the mountains that bordered this valley. There is also a sense that this old man probably lived his life, together with his wife and children, in relative independence from other people in the valley. Perhaps this was at odds with these other people, as if he did not "fit in" with society. Or was this because of Noah's concern for the direction in which his fellow humans were heading, which wasn't to his liking? He may have seen a lot of corruption and bad behaviour that wasn't promoting the true principle of love. If so, it would be understandable if he chose to keep away from the people as much as possible. Interestingly, the people did not appear to interfere with Noah's life. A rarity for corrupt people considering non-interference is one of the principles of love we should aspire to. Most corrupt people would do the opposite if there is something they want. At any rate, a point came in his life when Noah suddenly decided he would build a rather large boat while the days remained sunny and the land was relatively dry. Crazy you might think? At least for most people living in the valley, it seemed impossible for a rainy period to be big enough to flood the valley. There is even indications that some of these people watched Noah build his Ark and laughed themselves silly at the sight of a man who they thought had lost his marbles. Why build a boat in a place where they did not expect a flood to come? Yet something convinced Noah to do exactly that. Luckily for him, he saw the goal of creating his boat as a necessity, and could see he had all the resources he needed to build his boat in reasonable quantities (probably revealing more about the true fertile extent of the valley, including quite likely lots of trees and vines, and certainly not some kind of miracle of God instantly building the forest out of a desolate region for Noah as we see in Russell Crowe's movie). Yet something had convinced the old man to pursue his ambitious plan all the way to the end. Why? What gave him such confidence to pursue this extraordinary goal? These are very good questions to ask. And probably the hardest to answer because we have come to the only sticking point in the whole story. It is the part where things do get a little concerning for the rational scientist (especially when the evidence remains lacking). Well, according to the Bible, the old man claimed his inspiration to build the boat came from a mysterious entity called God. As we are told, God came to him one day or night and spoke to him and recommended that this is what he should do. If it was a hallucination, it was a particularly powerful one. Otherwise he probably would have ignored it, especially if he had some rational skills (which apparently he did given his skills in building a formidable and effective vessel to protect his family and the animals he would carry inside). Yet something drove him to do what he did, no matter how incredible this God-human intervention might seem, or outrageous and totally out-of-character his action would be viewed by other people, including his own family.

One could argue that perhaps Noah had suffered from schizophrenia given the voices he heard in his head. However, he isn't the only old man in history to have heard voices from God as we shall see later. And to somehow know when a disaster would come in a very timely manner? Now this is the kind of story that should be on that famous U.S. TV show "That's Incredible!". It would be a true rating success.

No matter what it may look like on the surface of things, Noah was definitely not experiencing any form of mental illness. Just a dogmatic and persistent thought in his mind that we had to built the boat. And, of course, he put his trust in this mysterious voice.

Whatever we might think of this God, among the words spoken to Noah was the idea that he should bring into the boat two of every animal (obviously of opposite genders, to make any sense, especially since Noah is not an expert in cloning techniques should the animals be gay or something. Better to keep things simple for the poor old man by keeping a balance in the genders). This would be described in the written story, perhaps with a little creative license, as "all the animals in the world". Well, as we all know, the man's understanding of the world probably extended to no more than 50 kilometres from where he lived. The valley itself must have been isolated or contained everything he and his family ever needed. So maybe this is just a play on words. As for the idea of preserving things, this is an interesting concept. It is, in fact, an important lesson we can all learn for any civilisation in the universe. Even today we know of the upcoming calamity of global warming and the extinctions that are taking place. Thus it would be prudent even in the 21st century to create our own technological Ark to save the DNA material of those animals (and plants) expected to disappear from this planet. And what about in the much more distant future when the Earth eventually disappears as the Sun grows bigger and we must survive elsewhere in the universe? Should we not take some animal and plant materials with us to help continue evolution and use them to keep us alive? Or better still, start to become a vegetarian. Much easier and less energy requirements to grow plant-based foods. In the case of Noah, we can see how he wanted to preserve as many animals as he could, but surprisingly no evidence of plants as well. How odd? If this disaster was meant to be a global event, surely the plants would get wiped out too. Or are we to infer from this interesting little insight that the impending disaster would not be as widespread as we are led to believe? In which case even this tiniest of detail in the story could be rather telling and may help us to understand the true nature and extent of the disaster.

Sounds about right to consider the disaster as relating to the formation of the Black Sea.

Whatever we might think about this knowledge of biologically preserving things in the face of an impending disaster (it sounds like this God must have the technological tools and gathered some pretty amazing information to know what was about to happen), luckily for the old man he listened and followed God's word right down to a tee. A particularly wise decision no doubt as it turned out the time of the flood was during an unseasonally rainy period lasting many days and nights. Those people living in the valley and carrying on with their wicked ways thought this was just a particularly wet period and would soon pass as it normally does. Or if a few did feel a sense that perhaps Noah was right, some may have tried to convince Noah to allow them to get onboard the Ark. Noah refused as he and his family, together with the animals, remained high and dry inside the boat.

Suddenly the wall of rock and soil separating the Mediterranean Sea from this ancient deep and fertile valley broke. Great timing, and not long after Noah finished building his boat. Makes one wonder whether God played a pivotal role in the weather patterns leading up to this unusually rainy period. You know, the cloud formation that God comes masquerading in on its arrival to Earth, and the link between clouds and rain? You are starting to get the picture, right? God must have one almighty piece of flying technology to affect the air pressure in the air and allow clouds to form. And if there is enough moisture in the atmosphere, why not a bit of rain too? It all depends on how long God wants to hang around to keep the rain coming and softening that wall down until the structure is weakened sufficiently. At any rate, the once impossible possibility of a great flood was fast becoming a reality as the waters from the Mediterranean Sea began rushing into the valley with great force and tremendous volume. A real testament of how little people knew of the wider world around them. In fact, when the flood did arrive, it would be very easy for Noah and his people to think the entire world was engulfed in water. Certainly the story gives us this impression. We have to say these people in the valley didn't travel very far and had no idea what was about to hit them.

Then the floods came. The people on land quickly drowned. With the Ark resting on top of a small hill to protect it from the force of the water coming in from predominantly one direction and so allow the rapidly rising and turbulent waters to surround the boat and lift it off its moorings, those "chosen by God" (via the old man) including the animals were kept relatively safe and dry. Then things would have got a little rough as the turbulent waters tossed and turned the boat in various directions, but eventually the waters would settle down and the wet weather subsided.

For allegedly up to 5 months (according to the Bible) the boat either drifted aimlessly or was pushed around by the flow of the water. Again this reveals a little more about the purpose of the boat, which is clearly not designed for sailing the winds to get to a destination fast, but rather to save the animals and selected humans and survive for a period of time on the newly-formed sea. To the simple-minded folks on the boat, this could have been seen as another great test in determining how faithful everyone was to God in delivering them to safety, wherever this might be found. When land was eventually sighted again it would either be on the new shores of the Black Sea or the boat could have been pushed up onto the slope of a large hill as the waters receded. If it happened in the latter way, the boat would have came to ground somewhere in the country we call Turkey.

As one would expect, Noah didn't come out of his boat straight away. Sensible man (not the sort to be hallucinating things). The ground was too wet. He waited at least another month. Good decision. Combine this with the period of rain that lasted more than a month and another week or so prior to the rains and we must presume Noah was in the Ark anywhere between 7 months and perhaps up to a year. That's a long time. It would certainly make some scientists wonder how big the boat would have been to hold enough animals and the food required for the journey. And could one man or even with the help of some people around him build the boat? Was there a great forest in the valley at the time? Or did Noah receive any help from human-like but very strong angels from God to build the Ark? And how long would it take to build such an Ark? The truth is, we really don't know.

Or perhaps the reality is that there wasn't that many animals in the first place to gather  only those that lived in the valley. If this is the case, the boat could be a lot smaller and more easily built by one man and his small family. The boat could easily be smaller if the time frame for the whole journey was not in months or a year, but perhaps a few weeks, and with less food to carry around.

Whether or not such a story is true (it has certainly not stopped many Christians in modern times from searching for the evidence in the hope of ultimately proving the existence of God), some scientists are starting to question how likely this story could have occurred, as well as who or what God is given the way this mysterious entity keeps managing to crop up more than a few times throughout human history and at the right times to warn certain individuals of natural and cataclysmic events. Perhaps these events are nothing more than a mere coincidence? Or could there be something special about this mysterious God?

This would not be the last time God made its presence known to humans. The next significant story to survive the ages and to suggest that God exists was when another old man was approached by this mysterious entity and asked to save his own people from a ruthless Egyptian pharaoh just before another natural disaster would take place. This old man would be named Moses.

Update2009

The story of Noah has been recorded on a clay tablet dated before the earliest Old Testament writings in the Book of Genesis were uncovered. The deciphering of a clay cuneiform tablet found in an area known as Mesopotamia and first shown to curators at the British Museum in 1985 reveals the same flood story right down to the idea of building a large boat to survive a great flood and carrying two of every animal as well as the family of the boat builder. The only difference between this earlier story and the one told in Genesis is that the boat was originally round and it was made with large ropes held together by bitumen, whereas the version in the Book of Genesis added the existence of a God that had influenced the man to build the boat. It looks like the two stories are probably the same but with slight changes. The translation of the tablet was finally achieved in 2009. Irving Finkel, the curator in charge of translating the clay tablet, was astounded to learn about the similarities with the Genesis version. More importantly, the earlier story gives more details about the shape and how the boat was constructed. As Finkel said:

"It was really a heart-stopping moment  the discovery that the boat was to be a round boat."

The exact date of the flood is not mentioned in the clay tablet. If the original story does represent a true event, it could have happened any time before 1,700 B.C.E when the tablet was made (which is more than a millennium before the first Old Testament writings of Genesis were unearthed). Archaeologists are finding some evidence of a giant flood plain in Mesopotamia around 5,000 B.C.E. However, the story could easily have dated to the time when the Black Sea was formed.

Engineers are currently looking into the original story as it gives remarkably clear details on how to construct the boat, right down to its size and type of materials used. There is an effort to determine how the vessel could have been built.

At around this time, ancient people visiting the island of Malta in the Mediterranean Sea were initially greeted with a natural environment abundant with vegetation and a reasonably fertile soil. Then around 5,000 years ago (i.e. 3,000 B.C.E), the societies on the island effectively denuded the fragile landscape of its natural vegetation, allowing severe soil erosion to rob the land of its productivity. Soon many humans living on the island had to go through periods where agricultural yields became unpredictable and costs to produce food went up. Then a hierarchical structure was set up by certain rich and powerful leaders in order to control the remaining resources. The farmers became less educated and worked tirelessly for a few powerful extraverted people who had knowledge of the outside world and used whatever methods available to control the information in order to maintain power over the working class people. Those who did not do as they were told would experience extreme poverty. Then the people of Malta had less and less produce to sell to people in Italy and the rest of Europe. People on the island relied less on imports from other countries. Life was getting harder and harder. It wasn't long before people turned to religious sculpture and art where the people began worshipping the gods, hoping the foods would be plentiful again by the next season (sounds familiar?).

As starvation and death became a common sight in Maltese society, the people showed a great religious obsession with life and death.

Small stone statuettes from the island showing images of obese human figures as a sign of fertility were common. The large numbers of such stone artefacts gives an indication of the obsession these people had with religion when the environment was already seriously damaged.

To make matters worse, a cult society with a religious hierarchy consisting of priests at the top of this controlling structure appeared in the final stages of the society's collapse around 4,500 years ago. People were made to feel compelled to honour the dead, placing the dead in burial chambers and caves, following many religious rites, making statuettes to link the dead with animals and human obesity, and expending immense energy to build temples at the request of the priests. All this in the hope the gods would be appeased and give the people the food they needed.

Soon the death toll rose and the need for people to remove the older bones to make room for the dead became paramount.

Then suddenly something changed. Not long after all of this religious activities, all the temple building suddenly ceased, the priests lost power, and a new religious practice began. By around 4,000 years ago (i.e. 2,000 B.C.E.), the old religious culture disappeared in favour of cremation burials. No more statuettes of fat women would be created from this moment on. It is as if the people finally saw the light and decided to start a new life.

Today, the people of Malta live on a hilly relatively treeless island with very little fresh water and a land seemingly inhospitable for farmers to grow anything. The people rely more on fishing as the essential source of food, the tourism dollar, and food imports from its neighbouring countries to survive.

5,300 YEARS AGO

German amateur mountaineer Helmut Simon and his wife discovered in September 1991 the remains of what is now come to be known as "The Iceman" or Ötzi as many local people in the area would affectionately call him. Believed to have lived in central-northern European through careful DNA analysis, the 159-centimetre tall iceman died in late spring or early summer while sheltering behind a rock in the treacherous Alps nearly 5,300 years ago (i.e. the Neolithic, or New Stone Age period). So dangerous is this part of the world that Mr Simon fell to his own death in October 2004 near the spot where Ötzi was discovered just when the weather suddenly turned bad.

Other people were also caught in the storm and had to be rescued by helicopter. Such bad weather is believed to be how Ötzi came to his end.

Analysis of the body suggests the Iceman died at the ripe old age of 46 years. Evidence of arthritis can be observed in the lower spine, right knee and ankle suggesting that he did a lot of walking through the mountains. A look at the contents of his last meal suggests that he may have been a shaman relying on medicinal mushrooms and grains for his sustenance, but he also ate red deer and alpine ibex (wild goat) to complement his diet.

Clothing consisted of a bearskin hat, three layers of clothing  consisting of leggings, loincloth and jacket made of deer hide and goat, and a cape made of grass and bast  and shoes made of bearskin soles, goat-skin uppers and grass to insulate his feet.

The man had been involved in some fighting with x-ray images revealing an arrowhead in his shoulder blade according to Paul Gostner and Eduard Egarter Vigl of the Regional Hospital of Bolzano in Italy. There is also a deep cut between the index finger and the thumb on the right hand. Histological analysis of the cut suggests the injury happened between three and eight days before his death. And DNA tests confirmed traces of blood on his clothing from four different people according to Tom Loy of the University of Queensland.

In trying to understand what had happened to the iceman, scientists have speculated on his life based on emerging evidence. The first explanation is that he was a shepherd preparing for a usual trip over the mountains in early alpine springtime. Except on this occasion the weather turned nastier than he expected and his health for such an old man was not as good as he thought. Maybe this is how he died.

Some scientists, notably Professor Walter Leitner of the University of Innsbruck, has given an alternative explanation as more forensic details emerged since 2003. The appearance of an arrowhead in the shoulder blade and the presence of a sharp axe the old man was carrying around suggests that he may have been a travelling trader and blacksmith dealing in recycling copper for local communities. Being a stranger, it is possible he may have got himself into a fight with young rivals and tried to escape by foot over the mountains where he hoped the rivals would not pursue him. This he may have succeeded. But on this occasion, despite his experience with the mountains, he may have timed it badly when the weather suddenly turned nasty and a blizzard ensured he paid the ultimate price. Either that or this old man was being pursued into the mountains by his rivals who wanted him dead but decided not to hunt him down after seeing how quickly the weather was turning bad. Or maybe these assailants did manage to catch the old man and saw his wounds and decided to leave him for dead when they saw the weather closing in and getting worse?

The latest forensic evidence suggests a third and final explanation. This explanation suggests he was not a stranger but a local. Trace isotope elements in the teeth composed of strontium 87/88 and oxygen suggests he didn't travel further than 60 kilometres from where he was born. Combined with the deep fresh cut in his hand which could be a defensive move against a sharp implement and the blood from four different individuals on his clothes and axe, it is possible the man was involved in a major fight between tribal groups near the end of his life (and probably defending himself at the time).

Weakened by his wounds, he could have decided to make a desperate attempt to travel over the mountains to return to his homeland only to be caught in a severe blizzard.

The truth is, scientists don't really know for sure. We have tantalising glimpses into the life of the iceman, but not enough to give a firm answer as to what really happened to him.

5,000 YEARS AGO

The first known evidence of writing has been dated to this time. Writing is the means by which important events can be recorded, how much of something was available (useful for trade), and anything else worth recording. Most record-keeping was written on animal skin to mark how much or how many of something was available, who did what, and when is the best time to grow food and perform certain ceremonies (considered by some psychologists as a strongly L-brain activity compared to, say, drawing pictures, which is a more R-brain activity).

As the development of writing was taking place, the Bronze Age began at around this time (i.e. certainly by 3,000 B.C.) in the area we call Mesopotamia. Prior to the invention of bronze, people were still using stones, copper and obsidian as the materials for making tools.

Apart from the L-brain skills needed to develop effective writing and communication, this was also an inventive time (i.e. R-brain skills) when the lands of Mesopotamia were sufficiently fertile enough to grow enough food for everyone, allowing certain individuals to become specialized craftsmen learning to experiment in making fine works of art and practical everyday implements and tools using different materials.

It was at this time when certain craftsmen learned to combine tin and copper in their smelting furnaces to create a new metal called bronze. Bronze had the benefit of being a much harder material than ordinary copper and resulted in the development of more durable products.

At first bronze tools were made for the rich and powerful in society (the ones who thought this metal was the most amazing thing in the world). Give it enough time and the trickle down effect takes place. In other words, the abundance of these tools and low cost to acquire them in second-hand form or when manufactured new in large quantities eventually tricked down to the rest of society and later become more of a flood of new products. For very low costs, pottery made from clay and heated in a furnace still remained the best option for most people when carrying food and water or storing other items.

However, being rich can still bring out the worse in people as they fight for the riches and acquire more lands. Having some bronze metal to protect the rich and the infrastructure developed within certain societies became an essential ingredient for the military in the building of more sophisticated and tougher weaponry.

At the same time, there is evidence of some rich and power female leaders in Mesopotamia showing more than just a casual interest in directing others to create spectacular gardens. Watching the stars, understanding the universe, and in learning ways to stay young and live as long as possible, was certainly on the minds of these females. This tells us that not all rich people were bad. Some of the writings eventually progressed beyond the mere recordings of quantities and the names of people to eventually retaining important stories and other knowledge told by the wiser people of the land.

4,900 - 3,000 YEARS AGO

Humans discovered the true usefulness of metals in creating very sharp cutting implements considered vital for hunting, protection, and in fighting other predators (one cannot ignore humans among the list of potential predators too).

In the early stages, metals tended to be of the soft variety (e.g. copper) resulting in many sharp implements getting easily damaged after repeated blows or for cutting. As more metals were discovered, human were clever enough to carefully select the right metals and combine them with certain impurities like carbon to help increase their hardness and durability. From this came the first bronze tools at around 5,000 years ago, and later the much more favoured hardened iron at around 3,300 years ago. Now if only humans were smart enough to also resolve differences and survival issues without having to fight other humans.

Leaving metals side, horses became the next animal to be domesticated by humans. The ability for humans to carry around large amounts of accumulated possessions, including weapons and enough food, over relatively large distances in almost any environment (except for the deserts where camels came into their own), and to overwhelm the enemy with their shear size and speed together with the skills of the rider to wield a sword and other weapons, made these animals a particularly valuable commodity.

As we can see, military wars still remained common at this time as some people tried to enjoy a sense of stability and greater freedoms in being wealthy and becoming leaders of a society. For some, power and greed got to the better of them. As a consequence, leaders would see the advantages for themselves of expanding their own territories as an effective means of gathering more valuable resources without having to pay for anything or learn how to produce them, and at the same time destroy the lives of many people who fought the wars to make this happen for the leaders. For all this to happen, metals were considered an essential part of the military arsenal at this time, and certain leaders made full use of them. Today, humans are no different except for the metals we use  now progressed to the use of titanium alloys for jet fighters and missiles.

4,600 YEARS AGO

It is quite likely civilisations have existed prior to this time and we just don't know it until the archaeologists dig holes in the right places. For now, what we do know is that the world's oldest known human civilisations have been definitively dated to this time.

One might logically ask, "Why create a civilisation?" Good question. Maybe the answer lies in the sorts of benefits people can receive with the least amount of effort (i.e., usually within short walking distances from people's homes  in 2013, this has progressed to being within arms length in terms of ordering products and services on the internet with a computer).

With a variety of new and exciting products made with metals, mirrors (for people to look at themselves and discover how important it is to look attractive to a potential mate, or perhaps a little more questioning of their own actions might be in order), more variety of foods from further afield and not just grown locally, hallucinatory drugs from various interesting new or familiar plants, new clothing materials such as silk (essentially to cover those parts of the human body that were likely to cause sexual problems in the opposite gender or to deliberately enhance sexual drive at the right place and time with the right partner, as well as for more practical reasons such as to keep warm, dry and better protect people from the natural environment and from the consequences of war such as a metal helmet and body armour), and other services (e.g. sex) to meet the needs and wants of a growing number of people at this time and so make life more bearable and enjoyable, trade had to exist. Trade is the means by which goods and services are exchanged, either in a barter arrangement or to devise a monetary system to measure how much one's contribution is worth to the rest of society and to get paid that amount from the people who buy your contribution and so allow people to buy what they need (or want) using a certain amount of acquired money. Where there was significant trade in a confined area, the propensity for humans to develop a large civilisation would have been great. As for everything else needed to maintain a civilisation in terms of building houses, laying down the roads, and any other infrastructure needed by people, this would come naturally in order to make the trade easier to take place and give people more of a reason to stay in one spot knowing the products and services are essentially there whenever they wanted to walk outside the door to get them. In essence, a civilisation just makes life easier for everyone to acquire certain things.

At the same time, civilisations can have their drawbacks. For instance, people can be oblivious to what's happening outside the civilisations in terms of remaining resources and how the environment is treated by humans. Some news might trickle through and a few people in the cities will think about the situation and possibly try to convince others that we should do something. Sometimes a war suddenly starts as leaders within the civilisation make decisions that feel this is the only way to survive and maintain the current way of life, instead of re-assessing the priorities and fixing the problems created by the civilisations, and even changing the system developed within those civilisations. It can be hard to change people from what they are comfortable with.

Other than that, should the civilisations be sustainable in the sense that they could potentially survive indefinitely, the advantages often outweigh the disadvantages in many areas. Hence the reason why people tend to congregate in the cities.

It is fairly obvious why a civilisation would exist thanks to trade, but it isn't the only way to create a civilisation.

For example, the art of war can lead to the development of a civilisation in its own right. Crude, but effective. As people have discovered, getting into a group situation helps improve the chances of all the individuals in that group to survive when fighting against other humans. However, in periods when no fighting takes place, these fighting men needed other people to provide the food and various services to keep the "military" group alive and in return provide protection to these other people from marauding invaders. Hence the development of fences and later large, tall and very thick stone walls as a means of keeping the enemies outside.

Once a civilisation is formed, there is another question of how long a civilisation can be maintained? Or to put it another way, would the people of a successful and sustainable civilisation look for other reasons to maintain it, such as an opportunity to develop more of the R-brain activities such as the arts, solve grander problems that would eventually lead to science, and a chance to venture out to more distant lands to see what else people can learn about the Universe? Or does religion become increasingly more important as people use up the remaining resources and soon contemplate the issue of death, why we are here, and what happens to us when we die? Or do the L-brain skills continue to dominate a civilisation to continually fight on and conquer distant lands (perhaps because invaders are still fighting them, or there is a desire to acquire more wealth from further afield)?

Or could there be another reason?

Whatever maintains a civilisation, one thing is certain. People within that civilisation must have some kind of a belief in the system to help support the existence of that civilisation. And it must be a belief that is in common with others within the civilisation in order for it to be maintained and supported for a long time. Otherwise without a belief of some kind, brute force and fear may be the only other way to keep people working together under the rulers or leaders (also called dictators) who have created their own beliefs and purpose in life. In fact, this latter approach is something we see in ancient Egypt.

For the Egyptian civilisation that first flourished nearly 3,100 B.C. (or 5,600 years ago), great wealth and power were seen as the dominant theme for the leaders. Why? Certain rich individuals realised they could live longer by being rich and powerful (perhaps they were initially very wealthy traders). Then a belief was born that perhaps they could live forever by somehow being the richest and most powerful leaders in the known world and acquiring all they could from the known world just to maintain this irrational and ill-conceived belief.

We can sort of see how this belief might come about.

Just imagine it. We have certain Egyptian traders getting fabulously wealthy. With all this wealth came the opportunity to relax and enjoy life. All the traders had to do was employ others to carry on the business while continuing to benefit from the profits. As this helped to free up more time for the rich people, they must have contemplated the grander issues, such as the moment of death, and made some interesting observations. From these observations came certain common patterns, and with it, certain interpretations of what the rich people thought was required to overcome certain unwanted experiences. One of the observations acquired by these wealthy traders was how much longer they could live compared to ordinary folks on the streets (assuming these poorer people were not killed prematurely by others in terms of unexpected accidents, food poisoning, or some other means). Somehow being rich by having higher quality foods and water, and having better protection from the sun by staying indoors for longer inside buildings made of stone instead of tents made of animal hide or basic wood, had some inherent mysterious powers of extending the life of human beings. It is almost like some god was favouring the rich and powerful.

It wasn't long before an initial belief was formed in the minds of these rich and powerful leaders suggesting that the richer and more powerful you became, the longer your lifespan would be.

Yet death continued in the families of these fabulously rich people. The issue of death still entered their minds as they observed their own loved ones eventually pass away no matter how well preserved from the Sun, reasonably healthy, and enormously rich they were. Somehow these people could not understand the reason for death and why it exists in this Universe. The fallacy of living forever must have hit home while the most powerful and richest leaders continued to die. Something else had to drive these rich and powerful people to believe in a new way of understanding what happens after death in order to maintain the civilisation. At the same time, they had to convince the people working for them that there is a purpose for what they are doing.

How do we get around this thorny issue of death?

At some point in the history of the first Egyptian pharaoh, the leader must have took it upon himself to believe that death is not much different from sleeping. Furthermore, as we all know, people sleeping will eventually have to wake up. IN the case of death, we just don't know when. Until that moment comes, how do we prevent the body from decaying too quickly so that the gods will have the power to bring them back to life or enter some kind of a new afterlife (whatever actually occurs after death)?

The obsession into the secret to true immortality among the early Egyptian pharaohs has meant that the belief had to be extended to not only include riches and wealth as a way of living longer, but also a means of preserving their bodies when they do fall into what they thought was the ultimate deep sleep of their bodies. So they gave other people what they needed (mainly food and basic shelter), and in return they asked the people to build the extravagant stone pyramids of Giza and other monuments and riches to help these dysfunctional leaders achieve their ultimate goal of travelling to the afterlife.

This is one religious belief we all know about after studying the lives of ancient Egyptians and their leaders.

Of course not all people of a civilisation will follow this belief.

In other civilisations (and possibly in Egyptian life), sex may be seen as a way to achieve immortality (especially among rich women in the upper echelons of society) as it made people believe they were younger (4), or felt younger and still loved (and possibly live longer) if men continued to perform and provide the pleasures these women seek. In some cases, women in these civilisations may work their way to become matriarchies (or leaders where the inheritance is transferred down the female line from mother to daughters). The men, however, are happy to perform work to produce the foods and have what they need and later provide the necessary sex to make the women think they will live forever young. Well, at the very least, it makes women feel happy knowing someone is there to see their attractiveness while the males can continue to get it up.

Or some people in other civilisations may simply see men and women as being equal with no need to create a hierarchy or an overarching belief system based on strange ideas about immortality or anything else. They would work together to achieve a common goal and later become leaders in their own right based on their particular area of expertise. And yet somehow manage to see each other as vital to each other's existence. An example of this is the group of Neolithic people living at the edge of a river on the plains of central Turkey nearly 9,000 years ago in a town now known as Catalhoyuk. In this society, men and women lived under the same roofs, performing similar tasks on an equal level, and were buried together under the floor at the time of death. In this ancient Turkish society, statuettes and paintings of a dominant woman with a wild seed lodged in her back and placing a hand on the heads of leopards together with statuettes of a dominant man or an animal with an erect penis or an association between a man with a wild animal, such as a bull, were quite common. Are these artefacts telling us women were important for agricultural activities and men for hunting animals or tending to livestock? One thing is certain, both men and women within this society saw each other as important and equal members as revealed from their elaborate artworks and way of life.

In other situations, civilisations may come and go often around large stone temples and monuments marking important seasons in the yearly calendar. This is vital information in terms of knowing when to sow seeds for food, or keep a record of the animals in the local region at a time when the land was plentiful and green as a means of teaching the younger generation of humans to hunt for these foods when they arrived. A classic example of the latter type of stone monuments can be found in Gobekli Tepe in Turkey. Actually, these Turkish monuments are interesting in that these were carved out by humans more than 10,000 B.C., or around the end of the last Ice Age. The monuments are particularly well preserved raising questions among archaeologists as to how they were carved with such craftsmanship when no tools have been found. However, one thing that has helped with the preservation was the decision by the people at the time to bury the monuments in sand perhaps to avoid them being destroyed by other humans. And it may also suggest human civilisations may have an earlier origin. So the potential is there to say the oldest civilisations appeared around the end of the last Ice Age. More work is being carried out to determine how true this is.

Initial analysis of satellite images for the Nile delta region made by Dr Sarah Parcak of the University of Alabama suggested that something had abruptly stopped pyramid building followed by a significant collapse in the number of "Old Kingdom" settlements soon after the death of the pharaoh Pepi II Neferkare (reigned c.2,278 BC - c.2,184 BC). Why the collapse?

The key to explaining what happened has to do with the Nile River during certain weather conditions prevalent in Ethiopia and the temperature of the waters in the North Atlantic ocean at the time.

Running along the shores of the Nile River stretching from Aswan to the Mediterranean coast (where the Nile's river's delta region is located) lies a thriving agricultural centre. In fact, so important was agriculture that many Egyptian people clung to the Nile River for their dependence on fresh water and in growing or acquiring ready-made natural foods (relying on capturing fresh and clean fish and making bread, which both foods are now understood to be low in iron given the amount of exercise needed by the Egyptian people to build the pyramids and tombs) and water at this time. The rich and fertile soils created by silt deposited by the Nile River during annual floods helped to replenish the shores with fresh minerals and organic matter, which in turn helped to grow food to feed literally tens of thousands of people who worked for the pharaohs as tomb and pyramid builders, as well as the people who did the growing, gathering and supplying the food and all the various other services needed by the builders and the pharaohs. However the success of the Nile River to provide such fertile soils depended crucially on the annual floods to continue depositing rich and fertile silt to Egypt on a regular basis.

Then something in the environment would affect the annual floods from depositing silt for a long period of time around 4,100 years old.

Thanks to the work of paleoclimatologist/oceanographer Dr Peter deMenocal from Columbia University and the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in Palisades, New York, USA, scientists now believe the cause for this was a catastrophic change in climate. Dr deMenocal analysed drilled core samples taken from the Gulf of Oman downwind from Egypt and noticed a two to six times increase in the amount of dolomite (or sand/dust) deposited over the ocean to fall to the ocean floor as sediment at around 2,200 B.C. give or take 100 years (dated by analysis of carbon-14). The only other time this had happened was during the last ice age until about 10,000 years ago. This told Dr deMenocal there had to be a rather severe and century long drought affecting all of Egypt and other neighbouring countries.

Other drilled cores obtained from the "Old Kingdom" sites by Dr Fekri Hassan of the University College London would show a similar increase in the amount of sand present during this great drought period compared to the long periods of silt deposits during the more prosperous years.

Therefore, the only explanation why the Egyptian system had collapsed was because the annual Nile floods for delivering the silt to the shores and delta region had significantly diminished for an extended period of time. It meant that rains higher up the river in the Ethiopian region were not falling as it should. Egypt experienced an extended and severe drought, and the people were facing severe food shortages.

Scientists believe at least 80 per cent of the water in the Nile River had disappeared during the great drought. The severity of the drought would also coincide with the collapse of around half a dozen civilisations in Greece, Turkey and Iraq.

And in more recent analysis of drilled cores in the Great Lakes sediments of North America by Walter Dean of the US Geological Survey in Denver and a Peruvian mountain glacier by Lonnie G. Thompson of Ohio State University and his colleagues, there is indication that the drought had a global impact at this time. But unlike the Egyptians, the native North and South Americans did have places to find or grow food.

Why was it so severe and widespread?

Dr deMenocal thinks he may have the answer. He believes the only way it can happen is for the natural conveyancing system of the North Atlantic for delivering warm water and with it a warmer and wetter climate to Europe had somehow stopped. The result was a mini-Ice Age in northern Europe and North America, and a severe and extended drought period in Egypt, northern Africa, Turkey and the Mediterranean coast.

The desertification of North Africa to form the Sahara desert was also thought to be the result of these drought periods made worse by the fact that humans were extracting the last remaining vegetation from the land for their survival. It is just that the drought of 2,200 B.C. probably made the whole situation so much worse than expected.

A papyrus written centuries later after Egypt had recovered (i.e. in what is called the "Middle Kingdom") gave indications of how bad things got for the people of ancient Egypt. It made the gruesome claim that people had to eat their own children in order to survive the drought.

Further details can be found in the 2008 documentary The Fall of Ancient Egypt (produced by IWC Media Productions for the Discovery Channel).

4,000 YEARS AGO

Asian seafarers introduce the wild dog known as the dingo to the Australian mainland.

3,750 - 3,250 YEARS AGO

An incredible story handed down through the generations by the Hebrews, and later written down in the Jewish Old Testament scriptures and eventually combined with other scriptures by ruling Christian patriarchs to form what is now called the Bible, would have its origins at around this time thanks to some rather persistent (yet very good) work by archaeologists and the efforts of a Jewish Canadian filmmaker named Simcha Jacobovici to find scientific clues to help support the story.

According to the Book of Exodus in the Bible and latest archaeological findings, it is claimed that sometime between 3,750 and 3,250 years ago (or 1,750 - 1,250 B.C, but more likely to be closer to 1,620 B.C.), the Israelites known as the Hebrews led by a man named Jacob moved into a small fertile area in the Nile delta (possibly at Avaris, the capital for a group of mysterious foreigners called Hyksos, as discovered by Professor Manfred Bietak of the Austrian Archaeological Institute). It is not clear whether the land was leased to them by the Egyptians. Nevertheless, the land was fertile enough and there was plenty of it to allow these foreigners to exist on an allocated portion (located next to where the city of Rameses would later get built). The foreigners made full use of the land. They grew an abundance of food, and with a bit of variety to see Egyptian people get interested to try it out and buy the stuff. For at least 7 years, these clever foreigners soon developed some serious trade with Egypt and Greece. When Jacob passed away, his son Joseph took over the reigns of leadership where he soon became a powerful leader.

Now if only Jacob pretended to be rich by wearing old clothing and lived in a modest home. Then all he had to do is learn to complain about how expensive things are in Egypt and kept to a "one child" policy (or certainly no more than two) and perhaps the rulers of Egyptian, who we know did wanted to be ostentatious about their own wealth to the people, would not have noticed anything unusual in these foreigners. The only problem is in all that trade going on. Hard to hide the fact that you are exchanging a lot of goods in return for money. Perhaps it should have been done in the cover of darkness just to be safe.

Well, this was the backdrop to what was about the befall the foreigners. Closer to around 3,500 years ago, the Egyptian pharaohs of the "Middle Kingdom" saw the rising wealth and power of the foreigners and their population numbers. Soon the pharaohs became afraid of revolutions as it could undermine their power and authority on the land. A policy was instigated to drown every Israelite male infant in the area to prevent a possible uprising against the Egyptian rulers at some point in the future. When news of the deadly scheme reached the Israelites, there was very little time except for Jacob's great, great grandson, a baby at the time, to be placed in a basket on the shores of the Nile river and left to nature to take its course.

Luckily for the baby, he was found in amongst tall reeds on the shore of the Nile by the daughter of a rich and powerful Egyptian pharaoh. Not knowing who it was owned by, she looked at the innocent and handsome baby. Did she think it was a gift from the gods? Or did she know the baby was an Israelite? It was probably the former case since the Egyptian woman decided she would take care of it. Remarkably there were no signs of disagreement from the Egyptian pharaoh over her decision.

Not long after, the Egyptians rounded up the remaining Israelites and forced them to work as slaves.

Over the next 20 years, the baby was brought up as an Egyptian with the knowledge of how to read and write and all the etiquette of upper class life while living a life of relative luxury.

Then one day, as the young man emerged into the real world, looked around, and tried to make sense of what he saw, he noticed how a group of foreigners consisting mostly of Hebrews were brought in as slaves and worked tirelessly for the pharaoh. More importantly, he saw how badly these slaves were treated by their Egyptian captor. Based on his understanding of the principle of love (his adopted mother must have taught him well compared to the pharaoh), he knew this was wrong. Something had to change.

It is hard to tell at this point whether he realised this group of slaves was part of his own heritage and blood. Were there similarities in facial features? Or was it simply his upbringing from a more caring adopted mother had taught him differently compared to other males, including the male pharaoh acting as his adopted father? All we know is that he witnessed the mistreatment and knew in his mind that it was wrong. For a young man seeing these terrible acts of cruelty by one human to another, hatred must have welled up inside of him. Eventually he plucked up the courage and conviction to do something about it. Even if it meant destroying whatever promising future he may have had in his adopted Egyptian family, he believed he would not be one of those rich people who would ignore and pretend everything is okay and things should be the way it is in return for living a comfortable life while these oppressed Israelites were being mistreated.

One day, the young man confronted the Egyptian captor after seeing more evidence of brutality with the slaves. Somehow a fight took place, the Egyptian was killed (perhaps it was nothing more than a firm physical push by the young man that caused the Egyptian to fall over and hit his head on a rock). Now the young man knew he could no longer remain in Egypt as such a crime was punishable by death. So he fled Egypt together with the people he saved to a place in the desert where the Egyptians couldn't find him.

Forty years would pass and the likelihood of any Egyptian remembering, let alone recognising, the old man was virtually gone. Yet something happened to the old man  now living a simpler and more frugal life  to make him come back to Egypt. Something drove him to complete one more task before he could be allowed to live his remaining part of his life in peace and happiness. This final task was to free the remaining Hebrews still working under the pharaoh's rule. What drove him to perform such a task? Again we return to a controversial figure. It is hard to tell how to interpret what happened to the old man. He would claim that it was a mysterious entity that came to him one day. That's right. Its origins come from above. The best he could describe the experience is by saying that he met a mysterious entity called God. We are told it had to be God and not some devil because it seemed the request from this strange entity was to help the remain Hebrews still captive in Egypt. No devil would ever suggest such a thing. Rather it would be a case of telling the old man to ignore the slaves and walk away. Or why bother saying anything? But to actually say to the old man that he needed to help these people, it must be God, right? In that case, it seems we are dealing once more with an encounter by an extraterrestrial civilisation(s) visiting the Earth with some kind of grandiose vision of influencing humanity towards a road of greater balance and love but needed the old man to achieve this goal. Fortunately for the old man, he did interpret the entity as God due to its understanding of the principle of love.

However, as most readers would ask, why couldn't God perform the task itself? As simple as it may seem to help the Hebrews, surely it will have the power to influence anything on the ground, including anyone who still maintained a belief in the gods and whatever came from the skies. As people have been led to believe in the Book of Genesis, God had allegedly created the Universe in 7 days (probably another play on words from a great story-teller to help simple-minded people to visualise the almighty power of this being in doing things and achieving great goals within a timeframe that people can see is impossible for them to achieve but can at least grasp the timeframe and can create the picture in the minds of these simple folks). It should be clear by now that the true creator of the Universe would have absolutely no trouble moving mountains and destroying anything in its path if for any reason anyone or anything was not in the good books of this mysterious entity. Yet we are given the impression from the type of God described by the old man as an entity who has suddenly decided it is too afraid to exercise its power on the people of the Earth, let alone on the rest of the planet. Why should that be so? Surely God can kick anyone's ass real good if it wanted to. No human weapon can ever counter the actions of a mean God hell-bent at changing human society. Or would it be closer to the truth to say that God is not quite as powerful as we are led to believe (i.e., the thing that came to see the old man could not have created the heavens and the Earth, but a lesser god)? If so, then one can understand why it chose not to have greater intervention on human events. God of the type seen by the old man could have felt more endangered of its own life should it get more directly involved in human society. Certainly it would be far less frightening in our society for a human to be doing the task rather than an alien coming down from the sky and scaring the living daylights out of the Egyptian people. Even if the alien was humanoid in design, looking at this creature would probably still reveal certain physical characteristics that might well be considered sufficiently different in appearance from any human (no matter if the alien might be prettier than us). At any rate, the alien would probably be more in danger of its own life if the humans decided to solve their fear by killing it. More of a reason to let a human do the job. And an old man at that too since back in these days, men would mainly listen to other men. If they are older men, then they would more likely be respected and listened to than any young bloke (unless he happens to have a sword in hand and an army behind him to sway enough people to follow his beliefs).

Nobody knows for sure exactly what happened. All we know is that the old man was shaken by the experience with God and he knew he had to fulfil a great promise he made with this entity.

Either that, or his group of followers must have given the old man some powerful drugs from certain opiate-making plants to make him hallucinate in this vivid way. Well, if this is what will take to get people to do the right thing and show more love in the world, might s well share this hallucinatory drug with the rest of the humans on this planet and the world should be a better place by now.

Whatever really happened, we see the old man was prepared to do something to help the remaining Hebrews in Egypt. Armed with certain secret knowledge acquired from this mysterious God, the old man returned to Egypt. He approached the pharaoh (the exact name is not precisely known as the years of reign for some of the pharaohs also coincided around 1,600 to 1,650B.C, and archaeologists have uncovered a new pharaoh in 2014 named Woseribre Senebkay whose mummified body has been carbon dated to 1,601 B.C. and appeared to have exercised his reign from around 1,650 B.C. making it harder for archaeologists to be certain who was around at this time to talk to this old man). As he stood before the Egyptian leader, the old man demanded that the pharaoh release his people, in a respectful way of course. The pharaoh looked at the old man who spoke unusually well for an outsider (and ignorant of the fact that this old man was taught well by his adopted Egyptian family more than 40 years earlier, so it was clear that no one recognised who he was). This old man probably wore shaggy looking clothes from another country and had a long walking stick and a white beard to suggest great wisdom. Probably reminiscent of a wizard from the Harry Potter books if he wore a pointy cone-shaped hat to complete the picture. But back then, this was an ordinary man. Just someone who should be given a little more respect given his age and potential for great wisdom.

Dynasty XVII: 1668-1570 B.C.

Pharaoh

Throne Name

Reign

Inyotef (Intef) V

Nubkheperre

c.1668-1663

Rahotep

Sekhemre-wahkhau

c.1663-1660

Sebekemsaf I

Sekhemre-wadjkhau

c.1660-1644

Djehuti

Sekhemre-sementawy

c.1644-1643

Mentuhotep VI

Sankhenre

c.1643-1642

Nebiryerau I

Sewadjenre

c.1642-1623

Nebiryerau II

Neferkare

c.1623-1622

Senwosret V

Seweserenre

c.1622-1610

Sebekemsaf II

Sekhemre-shedtawy

c.1610-1601

Inyotef (Intef) VI

Sekhemre-wepma'at

c.1601-1596

Inyotef (Intef) VII

Sekhemre-herherma'at

c.1596

Djehuti'o I

Senekhtenre Ta'o

c.1596-1591

Djehuti'o II

Seqenenre Ta'o

c.1591-1576

Kamose

Wadjkheperre

c.1576-1570

Dynasty XVIII: 1570-1293 B.C.

Pharaoh

Throne Name

Reign

Ahmose I

Nebpehtyre

c.1570-1546

Amenhotep I

Djeserkare

c.1546-1527

Tuthmosis I

Akheperkare

c.1527-1515

Tuthmosis II

Akheperenre

c.1515-1498

Tuthmosis III

Menkhepere

c.1504-1450

Queen Hatshepsut

Maatkare

c.1498-1483

Amenhotep II

Akheperure

c.1450-1412

Tuthmosis IV

Men-khepru-Re

c.1412-1402

Amenhotep III

Nebmaatre

c.1402-1364

Amenhotep IV

Akhenaten Neferkheperure

c.1350-1334

Smenkhkare

Ankhheperure

c.1336-1334

Tutankhaten

Nebkheperoure

c.1334-1325

Ay

Kheperkheperure

c.1325-1321

Horemheb

Djeserkheperure

c.1321-1293

Best estimates of when the leaders were on the throne for known pharaohs of the 17th and 18th Dynasties.(Source: Portrait Timeline, LLC.)

One has to give it to this Egyptian leader. At least he was prepared to listen to this old man, even if he probably laughed a lot as he did. Watching what he thought was an excellent bit of theatre from a funny actor who has foolishly travelled such a great distance to make this tearful request, the pharaoh probably coughed a little as he tried to look serious and maintain his gaze into the old man's yes, but still struggled to contain his laughter. Still he could not see what the fuss was about or the obvious benefits he would receive from releasing the people in the manner the old man was seeking. At the same time, this old man wasn't a threat to the pharaoh as he could see he was old and somewhat frail and didn't carry a weapon (except for his innocent-looking walking stick).

"It has always been like this, so why change now?" the pharaoh probably thought. And anyway, these slaves were literally the life blood of the nation. Without those slaves, the pharaoh could not enjoy his life of luxury and great comfort and preparation for the afterlife. So why risk losing all this extravagance and richness in his life by letting the slaves go? And now that this old man will have to walk back empty handed, the pharaoh felt incredibly amused. It seems the only benefit the pharaoh got from this discussion was to receive some entertainment and a welcome change from his usual boring tasks of ordering people around all day.

The Egyptian leader probably could not contain his laughter when he realised this old man had no army behind him to even vaguely carry out his request with any force should discussions with the pharaoh fall apart. With the way things were going, the old man was quickly seeing this meeting as a waste of time. Or maybe he already knew what the outcome would be?

Then there was a moment when the pharaoh felt a little challenged by the old man when he spoke of a Lord God of Israel. The pharaoh must have thought, "Oh really! Now who or what could have a higher authority than me and my gods?"

Maybe he wanted to amuse himself a little further with the old man's seemingly outrageous idea. Well, the pharaoh did make a reasonable effort to listen to this old man (one must consider it a slight improvement from the Egyptian captor who mistreated the Hebrew slaves forty years earlier). At least we can give this pharaoh some credit. However he wasn't entirely convinced of the old man's explanation. He stubbornly stuck by his beliefs and denied the old man's request. Even when shown some interesting tricks from the old man including his stick turning into a slithering creature reminiscent of a snake, the pharaoh still wouldn't budge from his position (did God provide the old man with a new type of technological walking stick? And did it happen to have a camera and a microphone for God to listen in on the conversation in the Egyptian temple to learn what the outcome would be?).

Two experimental robotic snakes developed in the 21st century. This shows how it is technically feasible with modern-day technology to create a walking stick that can turn into a snake-like creature with realistic movements. Picture taken by Steve Jurvetson and made available under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license. Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jurvetson/32689486/

Yet the old man was in an unusually confident position for it seemed like he knew what the answer would be from the pharaoh (not to mention the impending disaster that was about to befall Egypt). Why the confidence? Was this well-founded? It is not clear how God could possibly affect the outcome of an imminent natural disaster quite as well as we are led to believe. Remember, this entity is almost certainly not the true God that created the universe in 7 days, assuming the Bible can be relied upon as a trusted source of information. In which case, we have a lesser "god" who had been finding it a little more challenging to start a natural disaster, unless it did a lot of testing, applied some mathematics, ran a few simulations on a computer, and came up with a probability figure explaining how likely the natural disaster will take place. Might explain why this "god" had chosen to wait 40 years to tell the told man to do his work. This "god" must be certain the disaster was going to happen and timed it beautifully to make its appearance in front of the old man. Certainly it would be embarrassing for God (and make the old man re-think whether this God is real, or more likely the devil) if it couldn't stop the disaster should the pharaoh make the unexpected decision of letting the Hebrews go. If that happened, very few people would ever believe in this God, and then God would be in big trouble. Fortunately, as things turned out, God was right and the old man knew the outcome from the discussion with the pharaoh. There must have been a fair bit of psychology understood back then by this God. The fixated nature of the pharaoh's thinking was enough to convince God, and the old man, of what the decision would be from this rich leader. Whatever it and the old man knew and how it has figured it all out when it came to the catastrophic consequences, he would then declare to the pharaoh that if his people would not be released, the pharaoh and his own people would experience a great plague, the Nile river in the delta region where the pharaoh lived would suddenly turn red, the Egyptian people relying on fish and water from the Nile would suffer health problems, a great darkness would fall at a time when the Sun should be shining, and lightning and hail would come and other frightening events, unless the pharaoh released the slaves.

Not surprisingly, the pharaoh's highly rational mind and set ways of doing things as well as no record of a similar event in the past to make him re-think his position had not persuaded him to do anything different. He was enjoying life too much, and the slaves were too valuable to let go. All he could see was the ramblings of an old man making an unheard of request together with an unbelievable story of an impending disaster to hit Egypt. Carrying a clever magic walking stick just to add to the show for the pharaoh's amusement, he must have thought this old man was losing his marbles.

However, the events described by the old man did happen. As extraordinary as this may sound, archaeologists in the late 20th and early 21st century found evidence of what was the biggest explosion of the last 10,000 years occurring on the Greek island of Santorini less than 200 kilometres from Egypt. It is believed around 1,500 B.C. to 1,650 B.C. (probably closer to 1,613 B.C.), a sudden movement of the African continental plate as it slipped below the European plate caused a massive volcano to erupt (the equivalent of a pimple on the face of mother Earth which the true God had decided to pop open with its fingers, although in this case, a lesser "god" must have waited for this to happen). It blew such a huge hole through the island that plumes of smoke, dust and ash were sent 40 kilometres high into the stratosphere. Just to make it more remarkable, the wind was coincidentally blowing the dust in an east to south-easterly direction where Egypt was. Geez, God must have been lucky to predict how this natural disaster would unfold.

As a result of the volcanic explosion, an earthquake of magnitude 4 to 5 on the Riechter scale was felt 200 kilometres away. It was enough to topple numerous Egyptian statues. Soon afterwards, darkness fell on the Nile delta as the volcanic dust clouds moved over Egypt, just as the old man had predicted. It would be accompanied by intense lightning and a generous serving of volcanic hail (ash and water crystals) just to make the pharaoh think for a moment.

Still, there was more to come. An increase in the number of bugs and bacteria was enough to affect the health of the fish as well as the people who drank from the water and later ate the fish. The Bible also indicated a red colour appeared in the water looking like blood due to a sudden release of carbon dioxide gas inside the Earth reacting with iron dissolved at the bottom of the water and the oxygen, leaving behind a distinctly reddish iron oxide. Soon the fish died from a lack of oxygen in the water following the chemical reaction.

It this wasn't enough, an unusual number of insects and frogs were mobilised and, as they were trying to move away from the prolonged darkness, cold and lack of fresh water, came across the Nile delta to be witnessed by the Egyptian pharaoh and his people.

The pharaoh must have wondered what kind of magic trick did the old man manage to conjure up for this calamity to become true.

Even today, it does make one wonder what kind of scientific instrument the old man had in his possession to help him predict this rather catastrophic event. Maybe he stuck his finger in the ground and pulled it out and saw the future for Egypt? Or maybe he noticed in the air the smell of hydrogen sulphide and other sulfur compounds on a mountain top where the winds had been pushing the gases from the volcano in the old man's direction? That's an enormous amount of rotten egg gas and yet no one else in this part of the world ever noticed it! No stories mentioned in Egypt or in other civilisations living in the Middle East to suggest something was about to happen. Or did some men in the Middle East did notice the smell lingering in the air at certain times and apart from making a few jokes about it, decided it was best to keep quiet after getting consistently blamed for it by their wives (probably with words to the effect of, "No more sex for you big boy while you keep breaking wind all the time!"). Still, even with rotten egg smells, one had to know the relationship between smelly sulfur compounds and volcanoes. And if this wasn't enough, the old man had to predict precisely when the volcano was going to erupt and in which direction the wind would be blowing the volcanic ash at the right time. For him to achieve all of this with uncanny accuracy and know the impact of the disaster on Egypt would be an extraordinary feat of genius, or just an amazing educated guess. Unless the old man had experience with volcanoes at some point in his early life (no evidence to suggest he was aware of such a connection, or ventured far across the Mediterranean region to observe the potential hotspots for volcanic eruptions) it seems unlikely he could have known that a volcano was about to erupt (presumably in a place he never visited in his life).

Or should we conclude that he had a truly amazing instrument by way of his finger? Certainly makes one proclaim the finger is mightier than the sword on this occasion, or any sophisticated scientific instrument available to scientists in the 21st century. A truly astounding feat indeed.

Still, despite such remarkably accurate and insightful knowledge of the natural disaster, the old man had one more trick up his sleeve to impress yet again modern scientists in the 21st century. He returned to ask whether the pharaoh agreed with his request. Still he refused. So the old man said that his first born child would be affected by the recent catastrophic event.

Knowing that the pharaoh's first born is the most valuable to him as the child would take over the reigns of power when he died, the old man somehow knew this was going to make the pharaoh change his mind. Not so for the Egyptian ruler who, without being aware of the old man's knowledge he acquired from an unknown source, decided he would refuse once again the old man's request thinking his own gods would be more powerful and help protect his first born. How wrong he was. Not knowing the science behind volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and rupturing deposits of toxic gases underground, something else was about to happen. And it would affect his first born.

As the Bible indicated, that very night, all Egyptian first-born males sleeping on low-lying beds on the ground floor were asphyxiated by a sudden outburst of a large amount of carbon dioxide that emerged from the water. Again the old man knew about this and how to protect his people by asking them to sleep in the upper floor (remarkable knowledge for a wise old man with practically no scientific training and apparently no experience in volcanic eruptions and their effects on various things until now). He certainly must have listened to God very well indeed. Excellent job!

When the pharaoh's baby was fatally affected by the event, the pharaoh's intense grief saw him cave in to the old man's request. The slaves were released, and together with the old man, they went away seemingly unchallenged by anyone as they began to make the exodus from Egypt.

Now that would have been the end of the story, except we all know that all good stories never ends perfectly. Something else has to complicate the issue towards the end and provide some kind of a climax that we least expect. Brilliant story-telling no doubt, but then life is not always as we plan too. So either it is based on reality, or there was a great story-teller among us back then. As we learn from the Bible, the pharaoh calmed down and got over his grief. He thought about everything he witnessed and kept wondering in his mind, "What kind of a magic trick did this old man manage to pull off on him? Does this mean this old man's God is more powerful than the gods he worshipped? Surely not!" Soon his thinking changed to one of violence. It wasn't long before he foolishly decided he would try a trick of his own for the old man  as a form of revenge he would allegedly send 600 Egyptians on chariots to intercept the old man and his people and have them wiped out in a bloodbath. No more old man, and no more Hebrew followers. How's that for a magic trick according to the feeble-minded pharaoh. Unfortunately for the pharaoh, he was once again unaware of yet another magic trick the old man had up his proverbial sleeve (he would have made any 21st century magician proud of his efforts). And more importantly he would receive extra help from this outside mysterious source to ensure everything would coincide precisely to help save his people.

What happened next is interesting to say the least, especially if it represented real-life events. As we are told, the old man and his people had reached the marshy sea. Together with a bit of theatrics from the old man raising his arms and stick in the air and calling out God's name, the Hebrews allegedly witnessed the water parting on either side of the old man at the right time. They called the place Yam Suf (or Reed Sea and later renamed to Lake El Balah, which when translated from Hebrew means quite literally, "The lake where God devoured"). It would later be described by the people back then in imaginative language as a wall of water being scooped up by God on either side of the old man and so allowing him and his people up to 3 hours to walk across an apparent land bridge previously hidden by the water. The brilliant timing for the water to recede would have convinced his people of the reality of God. Or maybe he received a visual and auditory sign from God when he wandered away from the group one night to know when to do it?

Still the old man remained unusually confident, even right down to the fact that he knew how much time was left and he had to tell his people to start walking across the land bridge as quickly as possible. Why? What the Hebrews (and certainly the Egyptian soldiers pursuing them) didn't realise is that a wall of water no less than 2 metres high was about to return and sweep across the valley. At first the water receded for a few hours because of the movement of the African continental plate allowing the Hebrews to walk across the valley. But once the old man and his people reached the other side, the African plate suddenly slipped back. The Egyptian soldiers were oblivious to their surroundings. They were more focused on capturing and killing the old man and his people, or else face the fear of being executed on returning home if the task was not fulfilled at the request of the pharaoh. As the tactic of fear and death was used to force soldiers to do their dirty work, the soldiers were ordered to go across the land bridge. Not thinking and realising as to why the water had suddenly disappeared and whether it would return, the Egyptians continued on their merry way across the valley. However, the decision to cross the valley at that precise moment was the Egyptian soldiers own downfall. When the waters did return, it would coincide remarkably well with the deaths of these Egyptian military men. The carnage and destruction was witnessed by the people who stood safely on the other side of the valley.

Amazing. How could the old man have known when to arrive and travel across the valley? It sounds too precise. Surely this must be a made up story, right? Well, actually, we do find further snippets of some rather interesting pieces of information emerging from the Bible to show how the timing to reach the Reed Sea was not exactly precise. This kind of details is important and can make the story sound a little more believable and possibly even related to a real event in history.

We also discover other details of a mysterious cloud that descended to a certain height and guided the old man and his people during the day and later glowed brightly at night to help him and his people see where they were going. At the same time, this mysterious cloud had performed intelligent manoeuvres designed to affect the Egyptian soldiers on the ground  primarily to stop them from intercepting the group of people led by Moses  and so get everything timed right. According to Exodus 13:21, it is claimed:

"By day the Lord went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light. Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people."

The cloud was also witnessed by the Egyptians pursuing the old man and his people. In fact, we learn of several opportunities for the Egyptians to reach the old man and his followers to do their dirty deed only to hesitate on each occasion. Why? Apparently, this mysterious cloud somehow moved back across the sky on its own accord and low enough to a position where it made the Egyptians stop and wait. It was large enough to scare the Egyptians and stay put for a while. But this was all it needed for the old man to do his next amazing trick of "dividing the waters" so to speak and walk across the marshy sea. As the King James version of the Bible stated:

"And the angel of God [in the sky], which went before the camp of Israel, removed and went behind them; and the pillar of the cloud went from before their face, and stood behind them: {14:20} And it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel; and it was a cloud and darkness [to them,] but it gave light by night [to these:] so that the one came not near the other all the night. {14:21}

And the Egyptians pursued, and went in after them to the midst of the sea, [even] all Pharaoh's horses, his chariots, and his horsemen. {14:24} And it came to pass, that in the morning watch the LORD looked unto the host of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and of the cloud, and troubled the host of the Egyptians, {14:25} And took off their chariot wheels, that they drave them heavily: so that the Egyptians said, Let us flee from the face of Israel; for the LORD fighteth for them against the Egyptians."

A fascinating observation. For a great story not to be exactly perfect by showing signs that something had to intervene in the events on the ground to make things coincide in the right way for the old man and his people to reach their goal and cause the Egyptian army to be destroyed, it does make it more believable and potentially represent a real event. The only tricky bit is that it did require a third party to be involved (i.e., God)  the only incredible thing to have some rational people today scratching their heads over the veracity of the story. While this is not proof the story is true, it does provide food for thought. Are we dealing with an extraterrestrial connection here trying to guide humanity along the right path of social development? We can only guess based on the available archaeological evidence as it emerges (and why not reports of genuine UFOs and how they might appear in the sky  are there any similarities in terms of cloud formations around symmetrical flying objects?).

Or else we must assume the story was nothing more than the classic ramblings of an old man and his people trying to instil fear in their own children to do the right thing by conjuring up a remarkable story to coincide with the natural disaster that hit Egypt? Yet somehow the story would never be forgotten and was maintained over many generations and eventually included in the Bible. Today Christians, Jews and Hebrews believe this is among the best evidence available for the existence of God.

Or perhaps we are dealing with one of the earliest recorded evidence of ETs helping humans?

Fortunately the 21st century has arrived and latest scientific research into those mysterious flying objects known as UFOs (with special emphasis on those observed at close range) has shown evidence of a technology capable of supporting the mysterious glowing cloud in 1,600 B.C.. For example, we know that air pressure can be reduced near the metal surface of these symmetrical flying objects. Firstly a negatively charge is applied to the metal surface. We use an oscillating electric charge because we want to emit radiation and create a recoiling force on the object using curvature of the metal surface at the right spot for movement to take place and to travel in a straight line. Radiation also only moves charged particles (not uncharged matter as previously thought by the scientists). Adding more charge will merely give the radiation more to "hold" onto and "push" against (and taking with it the atoms and crystalline structure of the metal), thereby amplifying the recoiling force. This type of recoiling force is far more significant than was previously considered, and only a hint of the idea is revealed in the Abraham-Lorentz formula. This is the poorly understood formula of electromagnetism describing what happens to a charged object whose surface emits radiation, but have yet to be observed in reality. Also, the charge can help to electrify the air through its emissions of electrons from the surface. Thus you have a combination of large-scale electromagnetic waves (or radiation) being emitted outwards from the charged surface to physically travel away and push some of the air, as well as the emissions of electrons from the electrified surface to help knock out electrons in the air molecules (only to be later get re-captured and so emit radiation of their own  aurora-like colours are then observed in the atmosphere and surrounding the object). However, should the radiation be substantial enough to push away the air, and there is a large-scale magnetic field component also being formed by an internally rotating charged ring or electrically conducting fluid beneath the floor inside (even a rotating outer metal charged hull can do the same thing), more air will get pushed away rather than get electrified and sit there. The magnetic field is there to help in the deflection of charged particles, as well as icy comets and other materials in space. Furthermore, the electrified air will be strongest around the circumferential edge as one would expect. Either way, the result is a reduction in air pressure near the surface. The main benefit of this is to allow the objects to travel faster through the Earth's atmosphere without creating a sonic boom or creating extra heat to the metal surface from the frictional forces with the air. But there is another natural side-effect. When air pressure is reduced in slightly humid air, UFOs to be concealed inside, and come masquerading as, a cloud in the sky.

As an example of a modern-day UFO revealing this cloud structure, see the UFO case from Finland in 1970 observed by two skiers.

Hence descriptive words used to describe God in the Bible such as:

"God stretches out heaven over empty space, and hangs the earth upon nothing. He wraps the rain in his thick clouds and the clouds are not split by the weight. He shrouds his throne with his clouds." Job 26

could be easily explained using the latest UFO knowledge we have about cloud formations and the effects of electric charge and electromagnetic fields on the electrified air.

So when you hear modern-day military observers say the following things:

"No agency in this country or Russia is able to duplicate at this time the speeds and accelerations which radars and observers indicate these flying objects are able to achieve… there are objects coming into our atmosphere at very high speeds. Reliable reports indicate there are objects coming into our atmosphere at very high speeds and controlled by thinking intelligences." (Quote appeared in the New York Times, 17 January 1957, p. 31.)

as mentioned by Admiral Delmer S. Fahrney, former head of the Navy’s guided-missile program in the mid-1950s, we should not be surprised by this revelation. We should expect this sort of observation to be perfectly feasible.

As for the glowing nature of UFOs, again we should not be surprised. This glowing effect is attributable to the charged metal surface being heated sufficiently to glow like an electric light bulb. That is what happens when the charge is oscillating, forcing the electrons to move around in the metal very quickly. As the electrons bounce around and collide with the atoms and other electrons inside the metal, they will emit radiation of a frequency that heats up the metal. Make it hot enough and the metal will naturally glow and emit visible light and not just infra-red by way of heat. So when a heated glowing metal is surrounded by a cloud-like structure, it can give the appearance of a glowing cloud at night.

We can already understand a great deal about the electromagnetic technology hidden in those genuine UFO reports of modern-day symmetrical flying objects previously defined as "unidentified". We know how these so-called UFOs accelerate using radiation as the primary means of propulsion. The formula for this behaviour has already been created since the beginning of the 20th century, but it remains incomplete and only partially explains what is going on. Furthermore, no physicist has been able to work out how to implement the formula in reality. Electromagnetic experts call this the Abraham-Lorentz formula of classical electrodynamics, and you can find in any good university textbook on the subject (interestingly no where else, and you have to know where to look, and not all university textbooks on electromagnetism will mention it). And in case you think this is all theoretical, you should get yourself fully acquainted with the patented devices of Dr Thomas T. Brown in the 1960s (as he too has observed the glowing negatively-charged electrode using an oscillating electric charge and the interesting non-linear accelerating movement in his devices once they reached a critical voltage). It is based on the idea of distributing charge more to one end of his device than the other side in order to increase charge density and thereby emit radiation of a higher energy density. It is the higher energy density of the radiation that exerts the greater re-coiling force. You can do this simply by shaping one end of the object to have a greater curvature so that charge will congregate to a higher density in that region. Then the recoiling force exerted by the emitted radiation will be stronger on the object than compared to the opposite end of the object. The whole aim is to create an imbalance in the recoiling forces for movement to take place.

At last there is a way to implement the formula in the real world.

And when we do apply the formula to a real-life technology, we can see how at low frequencies of the emitted radiation, the movement can be made to look staggered or like a "putt-putt" effect. If gravity helps in the downward movement as well, the flight path may be described as following a zig-zag pattern (a common observation made by witnesses of UFOs). At a high enough frequency, it would be like the rapid movement of the pistons in a car to smooth out the movement. Then we are left with the large-scale movement which follows a particular pattern. That pattern is described by the mathematical solution derived from the Abraham-Lorentz formula. And the solution is revealing an exponential acceleration. Exponential means dramatic movement. Not like our rockets, which are described as having a linear acceleration where a fixed amount of fuel is burned to create a fixed recoiling force, and the constant acceleration helps to increase the speed of the rocket. We are talking about exponential acceleration. Check out a graph of exponential and see how it looks. Put it against a straight line acceleration over time graph of modern-day chemical (or even nuclear) propulsion systems. Do you see a difference? Have you realised how paltry our technology is?

Yet we must remember, the formula is not perfect. It is missing one important factor. And also the scientific explanation of why it works in reality has never been properly revealed. Let us just say that it would appear this mathematical concept has already been applied by some unknown third-party. And it is only a matter of time before we found out for ourselves exactly how it all works, and how real the whole thing is.

If you are not sure whether the formula can provides the required forces to travel great distances, you should know that the solution does tell us that any charged object emitting radiation in a predominantly single direction and recoiling the opposite way will accelerate quicker than anything available in our aircraft in the early 21st century, including those from the military. It means we can now finally explain how symmetrical metallic objects we call UFOs can cover the great distances between the stars. Remember, we are talking about exponential acceleration. When combined with one other interesting scientific concept regarding the link between the electromagnetic and gravitational fields inside a symmetrical Faraday cage thanks to Einstein's Unified Field Theory, we can at last appreciate how living things from another world can reach our planet in one of these devices. So yes, it is more than possible for ETs to have visited our planet today, and in Biblical times. Looking at the Bible quote for the glowing cloud like structure and knowing the are similar UFO cases in recent times, it is the kind of electromagnetic technology and associated side effects that does not seem to change over thousands of years. It's all a question of how refined the technology gets over time by each advanced civilisation when it discovers the electromagnetic concept and implements it in its own way. Basically, the more refined, the faster these objects of a fixed size and mass can cover the immense distances. Or if the speed is fast enough, further refinement would probably see the objects get built to a larger size, and so carry more things on the journey. More instruments, people, and possibly a means of growing food in space during the journey.

So what we are seeing today in the UFO reports could easily have existed 3,600 years ago.

At the moment, all this may seem too incredible to believe for some readers. Until the experiment is carried out to confirm the electromagnetic concept as a reality, let us be conservative and say that the mathematical solution is an interesting, but poorly understood area of electromagnetism found in only a few advanced textbooks of electromagnetism. In the meantime, observations in the Bible of glowing clouds moving on their own in different directions could still be seen as a fancy story-telling tool until scientists do the proper job of performing the electromagnetic experiment (and not always rely on mathematics for the answer, since the Abraham-Lorentz formula is not quite complete in all the factors that influence the radiation reaction force as we know it today, and our explanation for why it works has not been revealed). Or should we imagine the presence of glowing ionised gases in the atmosphere from the volcanic eruption which had lingered just at this precise moment for many hours (or days). Of course, we are talking about a cloud of ionised gases that can move forward and go backwards on its own as seen by the old man, his people and the Egyptian soldiers to affect human events on the ground. Quite a remarkable feat for any natural object in anyone's language. It kind of makes the ET explanation sound a little more plausible compared to this natural explanation.

The truth is, no one knows for sure what we are dealing with here. The quotes in the Bible are not quite detailed enough for scientific purposes to reveal precisely what it is that people saw in the sky. Even the story itself has not yet been proven to be true beyond a shadow of a doubt. Only that it is highly probable based on geological and archaeological evidence of a massive volcanic eruption at the right time and for the subsequent aftermath mentioned by the Bible to be scientifically well-supported. And now we have some insights into the Abraham-Lorentz formula to support an artificial glowing object that need not have to originate from Earth. All very interesting. It would be nicer if we had corroborative evidence from someone independent. Why not the Egyptian ruler, for instance? Unfortunately not even the pharaoh at the heart of this story made any reasonable effort to record from his perspective what had happened on a stone wall in one of his temples or on a wall inside his tomb. Probably understandable considering the pharaoh would not want Egyptian people to remember him as a failure and hint at the possibility that he was just an ordinary mortal with no powers from his gods to control people or events on the ground since he couldn't physically stop the old man and his people from escaping Egypt. Better to keep the whole thing quiet and get the military leaders to sworn secrecy and that should be enough for the the people of Egypt to remain ignorant. Then the powerful leader can remain in power and continue with his way of life for a long time. In the meantime, all we can do today is remain astonished by the story and keep finding more evidence to see if it is true.

As for the people who remembered and later wrote down the story, the old man would go down in the history books by Jewish and Christian scholars as the legend of Moses (the name given to him by his Egyptian princess turned his adopted mother), in memory of the man who saved his people from incredible oppression and cruel mistreatment under the rule of an Egyptian dictator, and who seemed to have the uncanny knowledge of knowing when a certain catastrophic event was about to beset Egypt and what to do about it and when. A truly amazing story if it is true.

The story doesn't quite end there. Three months later, we learn how Moses came down from what people would later describe as a holy mountain in the desert. Moses claimed he received a set of rules on two stone (or some tough material looking like stone tablets and fairly lightweight to carry around  well, we don't want Moses to work too hard carrying these tablets down to his people after all he had done so far) from, you guessed it, none other than God, of how people should live. Known as the Ten Commandments, Moses revealed a series of practical rules on how to live socially. In summary, the rules are all based on the fundamental principle of love when brought to their very essence.

Think of these rules as a necessary evolution of the mind through effective education. In the case of the people, they need to see things with their own eyes. If what they witnessed so far was still not enough to convince them of the existence of God and why following the principle of love is a good idea, then why not show them the tablets too. Makes sense. People don't have enough of an imagination to get the big picture. Too focused on the here-and-now and the everyday petty things they do to survive. They need to see things with their eyes to convince them of the reality of what they need to believe and do. With the tablets at hand, let the people touch them and see it is from God. Should be no more doubting God and the principles its is trying to espouse on the humans so as to accelerate the learning of humans on how to interact with other human beings in an appropriate way while minimising interference in the affairs and experiences of others so that other people can learn and evolve. Indeed, one could even broaden the principle of love to encompass all living things if we so desire. That would be a true test of our understanding of the principle of love. Treat all animals and plants well and that would even give God confidence that we can treat aliens properly and with respect that they deserve should a proper encounter with God be made one day to all the people of this world. Until then, people will have to follow certain rules for a period of time.

Rules are just part of education. And education is a necessary part of evolving the mind to see things and find solutions to all our problems.

As we should all know, the process of evolution itself has been quite tedious with all living creatures vying for an opportunity to stay alive. For some living things, it was a question of whether you are the solution to their problems in terms of seeing you as a source of food or not. Thus the reason why we must have predators. No escaping this fact. Now, at last, we have a brain and the ability to think through the problems raised by our evolutionary past and understand why living things have done the things they have been doing for millions of years. We are at the crucial point in our evolution where we do not have to kill people or even other animals in order to solve our problems. As for other living things, we should know why they have to kill (because they are all trying to survive on Earth like the rest of us, and with no sufficient memory and frontal cortex development to see other ways of reaching the same goal of staying alive by learning to work together or at least find alternative ways to create the food). Once we know why, there is much we can do to change the situation and show true love by ensuring we all have what we need to survive and be happy and how this can be obtained by working together.

However, if this concept of love still remains challenging to understand, the following commandments may be seen as the first important steps to helping a L-brain society to do the right thing and practice it in reality everyday:

I am the Lord your God. You shall have no other gods before me

You shall not make for yourself an idol

You shall not make wrongful use of the name of your God

Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy

Honor your Father and Mother

You shall not murder

You shall not commit adultery

You shall not steal

You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor

You shall not covet your neighbor's house, and you shall not covet your neighbor's wife.

With these rules etched into the stone tablets and hopefully in the minds of the people who see it (L-brain people need to see things in order to believe and do), people would call this holy mountain where God allegedly revealed the laws to Moses as Mount Sinai. (5)

Thanks to some interesting investigations by Canadian filmmaker Jacobovici, the mountain may have been tracked down. Assuming a daily walking distance of 15 kilometres and using the Bible to give an indication of how many days it took to reach the mountain from three locations (one of which is Lake El Balah or 15 days to walk to the mountain and the other two known to the archaeologists as Timna where Moses tended to his flock and was allegedly no more than 45 kilometres from the mountain, and a 11-day walking trek south of a place called Kadesh Barnea) together with some interesting geological features considered extremely rare for this mountain (such as a former fresh water spring on top of the mountain) and a natural geological ampitheatre, it seems the filmmaker may have finally found the landmark. He claims the mountain is likely to be at Hashem El Tarif.

Now if only we could find the Ark of the Covenant containing the Ten Commandments to help complete the picture and finally we would have the proof to support the reality of the story of Exodus. And it may even provide proof for God if we could analyse this material to determine purity and combination of elements and whether such a material could have been made 3,600 years ago. Even a simple determination of how the information was etched into the tablets can tell us if the right tools were available in those times as well. Interesting to see how we can no longer find these pesky tablets at the present time. Bummer.

How convenient.

Rather unfortunate considering this would be the kind of evidence scientists need for this story to be given a really serious look over and be accepted as historically correct.

Before Moses disappeared into obscurity (with only his people and the Bible to remember him), the old man wrote one other story of the first time God had a relationship with man. He began the story with a beginning as L-brain people can appreciate. He claimed "God created the heaven and the earth" but there had to be light for all this to happen. As the story goes, Genesis 1:3-4 stated:

Then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light. God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness.

Or is this a metaphor for God meeting humans for the first time through a lighting of the world (or the minds of men and women) with knowledge about the principle of love? Then again, it could represent in a scientific sense an accurate way of saying that radiation is the key to understanding how matter in the universe is created. Without radiation (or light as we generally call it), there would be no matter and nothing to observe and that would mean total darkness. So when we hear God say, "Let there be light!" and there was light, it is just another way of saying all matter in the universe has to be created. it kind of neatly sums up the reality of our universe in one simple statement. It avoids having to explain to simple-minded people back in these times about certain scientific concepts such as electromagnetic fields, quantum fluctuations, dark matter etc. None of the people back then would have a clue what you are talking about. Might as well keep it simple for everyone.

Next, we find the story attempts to explain how things were created in a kind of rough order. The things God does during this creation period does get a bit long-winded. We have to wade through more than two dozen sentences via Genesis 1:1 to 1:31 to describe how things came to be. If one had a little more knowledge, Moses could have simplified the whole beginning of the story by saying that God brought light into the world, and then all matter in the universe was created, followed by the stars and planets, including the Earth and all the things we see in the heaven, and later the animals and plants, and eventually man who, incidentally is made in the image of God (funny that Moses would include this tiny piece of detail considering God could have looked like anything except he just so happens to look humanoid in shape  did Moses actually see something during his encounter with God to suggest that God really is shaped like a human, and perhaps may have looked not too dissimilar to us?). By simplifying the story in this way, it does help to make it more understandable from a scientific viewpoint of the order and how things appeared. For example, scientists do know that the universe does need to have light (or radiation) first before it can be compressed to form self-perpetuating rings of energy needed to build atomic particles of electrons and protons. And then these particles must come together to form atoms of different elements inside stars. And once these elements have been cooked inside the nuclear fusion reactors of stars and released into the cosmos by supernova explosions, they can help to create planets, more stars, eventually life, and with it all the creatures in the sea and eventually on land, and finally the creation of humanoid creatures capable of manipulating the environment called man (well, at some point two limbs will have to be freed to manipulate the environment and build tools and for the other two limbs to do the walking, so this could be a universal feature of the cosmos for those able to build a technology). Certainly fits in with the way evolution has taken place here on Earth with man created at the very end of the evolutionary road.

Looking further into the story we see Moses puts a timeline for all this creation work by God. However, people in those times would have had enormous difficulties understanding the scale of time required for all this creation to take place (a billion years is way too hard to imagine for almost anyone today, let alone the passing of 10 years in the mind of a simpleton living around 1,600 B.C.). Much better to introduce the days of the week as a tool to make it easier to visualize and would certainly make God a truly all-powerful omnipotent being capable of doing amazing things. Probably powerful enough to get people to see the value of listening to God whenever he speaks to us if we don't want our ass kicked. At any rate, we see the story ties all the creation events within 6 days, and on the 7th day we learn that God took a rest and look upon his creation as "good".

Geez, did God really need to rest on the 7th day? It is hard to imagine God being so tired after all this work. Yes, it is a big job, but God shouldn't be tired, surely. Or can God be worked to the ground and die from exhaustion and the universe be left Godless?

Or perhaps the idea of resting is just another clever way of saying how humans need to spend a little free time to think about things beyond the normally daily grind they are in when trying to survive and pay their way through life. Otherwise relaxing is certainly an important thing to do. All work and no play makes for a boring person. So even today people need at least the weekends to relax, try their hand in other areas, solve other problems, and just generally have some fun. Give humans enough time to relax and eventually they will contemplate and eventually want to know where we are going, the purpose of the universe, where we are heading in this journey of life, solve the problems, and to ensure our path is one that shows true love.

Speaking of love, this may be a rather subtle concept that may not have been properly understood back then. The Ten Commandments were just the beginning. But the way God had chosen to create fear in the people just to get them to listen and do the right thing would cause some other problems later. It would take another wise man with connections to God to try to rectify the problem and elaborate further on the principle of love and what humans should be doing. But for now, this was just the beginning to help the simple-minded Hebrews understand and remember the story, and see the value of following God's will.

Moving on, we see that Moses also mentions all the various people who once existed and died and the descendants of those people right up to the present time (i.e., 1,600 B.C.). Today, religious people try to estimate the timeline for when all this began:to approximately 6,000 years ago (or starting from 5,400 B.C.). It is a numerical figure based on rough educated guesses of the ages of the various people revealed in the Bible and certain known events that took place in human society in this part of the world. If any familiar names are mentioned in ancient stories carved in clay tablets, they kind of help a bit to get the timescale more accurate. Otherwise, when we add together all the numbers, it is probably around 4,000 years of biblical history covered in the stories before Moses walked the Earth. Forget some religious people today taking this figure in a literal sense to think this is when the universe came to be or at least when the Earth was created. This is what happens when the knowledge is now properly balanced by scientific fact and archaeological evidence. It is closer to the truth to say that this very rough timeline of events presented by Moses in his story probably goes back to the time when Noah was probably alive and had just received word from God to build his famous boat. However, Moses adds that God created man and his companion (a woman) in the Garden of Eden. Perhaps Moses was referring to two other individuals who received special treatment by God somewhere in the ancient valley where Noah lived, or was it in Mesopotamia? Or maybe it was nothing more than a simple message embedded into a creative story that explains how people generally become corrupt when receiving too many temptations when presented to them on a platter (or branches of a tree by way of fruit) and become eventually greedy, and cause so many other problems after a while. Because as the story goes, God wanted to test the two individuals to see if they would follow God's commandment of not eating the apple on a particularly pretty and splendid sacred tree.

From this story of the Garden of Eden, Noah eventually makes his grand entrance. We again see more of the corrupt nature of people living in the ancient valley. Then we are told of another message from God to tell Noah to build his boat, followed by the great flood to wipe out the corrupt people while saving the one family who was doing the right thing, thereby reinforcing the importance of doing good things (i.e., follow God's word, which is just another way of saying, "follow the principle of love", and God will look upon you in favourable terms, and you may also receive help at the right times).

So any numerical figure calculated from the Bible may actually refer to the moment when God first had a relationship with humans, and not as some people in the 21st century take literally to mean when the earth or the Universe was formed.

The story of Noah effective ends there. It would later require the writings from other people in the generations after Moses to gather more details about some of the subsequent and apparently important events that took place, who else may have received messages from God, and uncover more knowledge about the principle of love through the various stories told over the generations.

However, something else was clearly missing from all of this knowledge. Following God's commandments to do the right thing according to Moses in order to promote this principle of love was just the start. Even today, too many fundamentalist Christians take the Bible and its stories too literally to the point where they think the universe was created 6,000 years ago and humans lived among the dinosaurs soon thereafter. It is starting to look like some religious people are getting the Bible confused with those cartoon characters in the Flintstones. Whereas, if you don't do as God says, you will go to hell or God will punish you. Otherwise, Jewish people (and later the Christians) will be quick to treat these people differently and even deny them love and possibly categorise them as "working with the devil" (or are non-Christians and hence should be discriminated  you see this commonly among Christians who reach a position of power and think they can treat non-Christians differently) and have these sins when in reality this is not the true concept of love. These Christians follow too closely what they are told by the Bible and even by their own religious leaders (e.g., the Church in Rome) who are assumed to be experts in the principle of love based on their interpretation of the various stories presented in the Bible.

What's missing in all of this?

It is simply for people to think for themselves and make their own decisions as to what the principle of love should be about and to show it to the world through their actions (i.e. reaching for goals). If you don't, you will end up like the story of the father who was commanded by God to kill his only innocent son as a sacrifice to prove he was willing to follow God's word (as in the case of the Old Testament story of Abraham and his son Isaac). The father was at the point of raising his knife when God stopped him (because it too knows the principle of love was not being applied correctly in this circumstance). Rather, it was a test to see how God should approach humans to teach the principle of love. Should it be done like we are children where punishments are necessary to get people to fear God and follow its teachings precisely or else be destroyed should we disobey God as in the Old Testament? Or should we be treated like adults with a little more flexibility, some education, and have the opportunity to make reasonable decisions on our own on what is right, and to go ahead and do it? Or to put it another way, should we let God be our only leader (and occasionally some of the prophets who have appeared from time-to-time because of their connections with God) and let them decide everything about what we should be doing? Or should we become our own leaders, not just in the areas where our interest and expertise lies, but also of the principle of love?

You see, the only problem with going the former approach of doing as you are told by God is that enough people will eventually fear God so much that we become literally paralyzed in finding a solution on our own. We learn to accept that we are incapable of solving all our problems. So instead, when a social problem gets too difficult to solve, we prefer to wait for God (or a prophet who will hopefully have been visited by God) to come back and everything will be solved, or at least tell us what we should be doing. It seems like we can never get past being a child in front of a parent who we think is holding the stick in his hands in readiness to beat us if we do the wrong thing. And the only way we might do anything different is if more rules are added to the Ten Commandments in order to tell us exactly what to do. Only problem is, God knows how many more centuries (or should that be in the millennia given how few prophets have appeared throughout history?) people will have to wait (Zzzzzz...) until the next prophet with great wisdom will appear wand provide a more complete and thorough understanding of the principle of love while having this connection to God to give us those extra rules. It is clearly going to take a long time. Until then, world problems appear and we still don't know what to do to solve them. Or at least not properly anyway. At some point, we have got to think for ourselves and do the job properly for ourselves if we are going to grow up in the right way and solve all our problems. Sure, be aware of God and what it represents (i.e., the epitome of true love) and imagine what God would do to solve problems, but also think for yourself and decide what is right under the principle of love.

Unfortunately, for this "next step" knowledge of getting people to become independent "thinkers" with a solid grasp of the principle of love and the confidence to apply their own decisions without fear (and at the same time acknowledge that the only authority we should follow is God and no one else), we had to wait another 1,600 years before the next wise man would come along to tell us this fact. When he finally did arrive (better late than never), it would be in defiance of the older prophets of the past (that is, the ones from the Old Testament, including Moses) and even a number of the Jewish high priests who were following very closely those older prophets. Unlike the old men in the past who saw God, this new wise man was a younger person with sufficient knowledge and a solid understanding of the principle of love and God itself to give him the confidence to challenge the authorities at the time and question their interpretation of the Old Testament stories, the nature of God, and what the principle of love should be all about. He would appear once when he was born, somewhat under unusual circumstances (with Mary being described as a virgin despite carrying a child  sounds like God has considerable knowledge of artificial insemination at a time when the poor girl was kept asleep one night and was oblivious to the procedure  the Bible claims she was approached by an angel to seek her verbal consent for this to happen, which she did even if it was described as a frightening experience for her), a brief moment when his brother James saw his older sibling in the Jewish temple talking to older priests, then unexpectedly in his early thirties when he decided to emerge and start solving social and medical problems among the people in his part of the world. He would show remarkably clear and insightful knowledge about the principle of love and the kind of world everyone could live in (he would describe this as the Kingdom of God). His teachings and application of his knowledge would constantly be in favour with God (and possibly allow him to get further assistance in the apparent miracles he managed to perform in front of the people). He would use parables and stories to teach those who were willing to listen, visualise, and eventually see the answers. Then we can all get closer to the goal of turning the world into the kingdom of God (if not in Jesus' life, then in the next, and the next, until people finally learn the lessons of love). He would demonstrate his exceptional ability to heal the sick in seemingly miraculous ways, initially through the use of clean running water for improving hygiene of many sick people and later by other means. And finally, to let people know they don't have to follow the human authorities all the time or even be bound by the words of the old God spoken in the Old Testament (thereby showing it was probably more of a "god" trying to influence humans like a parent to a child with rules of "do what God says or face the negative consequences"). That was the old God. Unfortunately, social problems persisted in Judea and Palestine to reveal this old God was not sufficient on its own. Something else was needed for people to have the freedom to follow the principle of love in their own way and one that benefits everyone elese. Now the words of this charismatic leader was to break free from the traditions where the love is clearly not there and to go one step further. The new message: Just think on your own two feet, and do what is right. Remember, you are gods, but not God. Don't worry about the authorities. They have their own problems to worry about. If you get killed by the hands of these feeble-minded authorities unable to see what you are doing is right, you will be reborn. Soon time will see to it that as more and more people learn of a better way and the human authorities come and go, a new world order will have to begin. The Kingdom of God will come when you can follow the path with a heart to the new world. And most importantly, people should not have to fear anything if they want to do something different that is more closely attuned to the principle of love.

Yet there was one more thing to do to get people to feel truly free in doing things on their own. The next thing to keep people paralyzed in not taking appropriate action to solve problems and do the right things to change the world is the issue of death.

We all don't want to die. Understandable. We see it as part of reality and something we must all experience at some point. Sure, there are times we feel powerless to control it. Also, death could be just around the corner, and often at the hands of the authorities who simply cannot visualise what they were doing and the things they were missing out on if people were allowed to be properly free to achieve things (where is our faith in people?). At other times, we are just fearful of the negative consequences from our fellow humans if we do something different. We are afraid to grow up. We prefer to stay where we are, not rock the boat, and just generally follow the status quo, even if we see things we know it is not right. Yet it would take this great young man to prove a point about death using his own body as an example (and with a little help from God, he was brought back to life for his disciples to witness his return). Eventually we will die, but we will all come back again, and again, and again. We just don't know it, and can't prove it. Only indirect patterns we see around us would support this view.

Hence the reason why this one man was prepared to sacrifice himself on the cross and be seen as risen again with the help of God.

The message is simple: show love when you are alive (people will tell you if it isn't, and if so, you must listen and learn, or at the very least address the fears people have in what you are doing and show the positives of what will be achieved for the good of all, and at the same time, people who have been harmed must learn to forgive), and don't worry about death as it is not meant to be the end, but rather the beginning to a bigger adventure. All you need is people power and with enough individuals to think for themselves and apply the principle of love and not even the most hardened, corrupt and ruthless authority with its military might can stop it. Too many independent self-thinkers with true compassion and the knowledge of how to get around the oppression will overwhelm the corrupted. And indeed as time goes by the new world should basically start to show the benefits to everyone, not just for the corrupt leaders and military followers. It will be too hard to stop the movement by any authority. For those who do fall down initially, they will come back and enjoy the fruits of their own labour and those of everyone else who do understand the principle of love and are implementing it in the real world, the way it should be forever.

If we still do not understand this after all this time, what will? Would it take another courageous wise man (or woman) to come along and tell us again how to do things properly? We hope not. We should be smart enough by now to solve our own problems. Don't let anyone tell you you can't do this or that. You are free to achieve anything you believe will work and will promote the principle of love for all.

If you ever need some inspiration about this extra knowledge missing from people's lives today, just read the New Testament. Better still, focus on the quotes that have been remembered with reasonable accuracy by the disciples who followed this charismatic leader. It is a compilation of writings made by the disciples who were "chosen" by the wise young man to record certain important events and sayings and to present certain essential concepts as well as anyone else who seemed to have understood something about the principle of love after the death, resurrection or revival, and later departure with God of this wise man (in yet another cloud formation in the sky, but with all the bells and whistles of lights and angels coming down to collect the wise man and disappear into the sky). But, of course, all this depends on people centuries later knowing how to compile, translate and copy all these writings. In other words, those in a position of power in the Christian religious hierarchy do not selectively choose gospels because of their own views of certain writers and in trying to make the wise man seem more miraculous than he really was. As he once said, he expected others to do greater things that he did. If you thought what he did is pretty amazing, how can we do greater things than he? Or did he have the right knowledge and tools to achieve things for which anyone could have learned and have done in the same way? Why do we need to put ourselves down and think we can never be as good as this wise man? Why the let down from the Church? Seriously. Forget those authorities who have selected certain writings to be included in the Bible and have elevated the great young man to a level that none of us can aspire to. Forget those who claim this or try to pigeon hole you to think in a certain way. Broaden your own thinking. Never rely entirely on the Bible as presented by the Church in Rome. Look at the surviving Gnostic gospels for further insights. There is something more we can learn about Mary Magdalene and her relationship with the wise man. Discover the words he used to help this woman to grow and be as good as any man, even himself. It is far more interesting than you will realise.

And don't forget science! Understand something about science.

Also, learn about psychology, and the importance of women in life (and not just men).

Learn and be educated in a broad range of subjects, issues of the day, and the patterns we may not be able to see directly with our eyes.

Remember, the Bible we have today is clearly not the complete works containing every single written piece made by people in those times. Be aware of a greater balance from the woman at the centre of the wise man's life, and those of the men.

And use science to put things into a realistic context.

When we do this, we start to gather a tantalising glimpse of the knowledge that this wise man was trying to reveal to us (and for which God has been trying so hard to teach us after all this time, but somehow it seems not everyone is listening, and at the same time God can make a bit of a mess of it at times only to see a prophet try to fix the problems and get us to have the confidence to do the rest ourselves). The concept of balance is one thing. Another is the concept of love. And yet another are the hidden insights into the nature of death and the eternal lives we will all experience. And what about to think for yourself? For example, we know the wise man said to the Jewish priests that "we are gods" in the sense that we can change ourselves and influence many other things as if we are God, but we are not God. There is only one God. Our aim is to approach God. And to do that requires us to think about our actions, to learn new skills and listen to people, acquire new knowledge, and to implement everything that we have learned if we can see the principle of love in what we do. Use our skills and knowledge to solve problems for the benefit of everyone. Sure, we will make the occasional mistakes. That is life. This is why the wise man also tried to teach people the power of forgiveness. We are not perfect. Learn from the mistakes, and let people move on so we can all become better and more loving people. Then we can all get closer to the one true God through our knowledge and experiences. As for death, do not worry. We will have ample opportunities to come back and get those changes that need to be done to take place and help promote true love. Or sometimes time itself has a way of changing everything. Those who are oppressed will no longer feel oppressed. Those who are the oppressors will find themselves to be the oppressed. The concept of balance has a habit of seeing this happen given enough time. That is how the universe generally works.

Until this extra knowledge and enough experiences are gathered to see this truth, all the people could do in the time of Moses' and all those that followed is to remember the stories, and how important it is to listen to God and follow what he says (understandable considering that it had saved Noah and Moses at a time of a great catastrophe).

Today, we no longer have to simply remember the stories or follow precisely what God in the Old Testament says. In those times, God needed to treat humans like they were children needing a parent to guide them, and punish them if they do the wrong thing. What was missing back then was the lack of forgiveness and the chance to think on our own two feet. God is not always there for us all the time. Nor is it an authoritarian dictator telling people to do this or that or else face the consequences. We can act on our own knowledge, develop our own skills, and apply all of this to solve problems and create our own stories for generations who want to listen. We can effectively change our own destiny and eventually create the kingdom of God so much talked about by the young wise man.

All this is currently the best and most distilled understanding of the essential knowledge presented in all the religious texts unearthed from the Middle East.

Want to know more about the latest archaeological and geological evidence to support the story of Moses and the Exodus from Egypt (not including the possibility of extraterrestrial intervention in human affairs)? Check out the 2006 film by two times Emmy award winner in investigative journalism named Simcha Jacobovici titled The Exodus Decoded. The film also contains new interpretations for some archaoelogical artefacts which is likely to keep scholars busy and debating for many years to come as to whether or not they have finally got the evidence for the Exodus, the most famous story lying at the heart of Christianity, Judaism and Islam.

NOTE: Should scholars find universal agreement on the site for Mount Sinai as being at Hashem El Tarif, can there finally be agreement between Israeli and Palestinian people on how to live in peace? For example, why not give the Palestinian people a new state in this area? It will be far enough away to stop Hamas fighters sending rockets into Israel and so stop Israel bombing the Palestinian people. And at the same time it will give the Palestinian people responsibility to look after a Holy place. In return, Israel can share Jerusalem with the Palestinians and the Palestinians can give Israelis access to Hashem El Tarif. And if they still can't live in peace, perhaps God will make sure the sea levels rise high enough by the end of the 21st century to ensure there is no Israel and Palestine to live in. A very simple solution to what people claim is a complex problem.

3,300 YEARS AGO

The Iron Age is truly upon us when the Greeks developed their own formidable army and iron weaponry. It was a time for Greek legends, such as Achilles, the greatest Greek warrior, who fought in the 10-year war against the Trojans at the city of Troy near the Dardenelles in Asia Minor in the 13th century B.C., to make their mark on the world.

The Greeks relied not just on a strong sense of social skills to stick together and fight the enemy but also displayed unusually intense and brutal male competitions at home (which later gave rise to the idea in the modern world of starting up the less violent Olympic Games). The competitions helped to physically bring out certain individual traits and skills (e.g. throwing spears at seemingly impossible distances, showing signs of remarkable endurance and strength, and much more) that eventually saw certain Greek men reach almost God-like status among their own fellow country men and women and later spawned some amazing tales.

Some of these legendary skills may have been seen by those outside of Greece as "a gift from the gods".

3,000 YEARS AGO

World human population reaches 100 million.

2,500 - 2,000 YEARS AGO

Despite some people gaining important knowledge of the principle of love and living a more balanced, sustainable and simple life, certain L-brain societies would arise after intense and regular warfare or as resources dwindled and became a valuable commodity. These type of societies tended to be large, highly organised, specialised, hierarchical in structure, highly communicative and usually brutal and conquering as a means for those in power to get what they need and want. One can, therefore, surmise that such "rational" skills in creating a L-brain society is a trait well-suited to men with nearly all leaders being exclusively male-dominated. Of particular note in this regard were the Greeks in 231 B.C., and later the Romans from Italy.

At first the mighty Greeks continued using the power of the spear, regular sporting events at home to maximise muscle strength and endurance, and shear numbers of fighting men and horses as the deciding factors in determining the outcome of most, if not all, battles with other nations for a long time. As a result of this knowledge of winning battles, one man became particularly obsessed by the riches of the world and wanted the power to dominate the known world, His name was Alexander the Great and he would use the technology of the spear as well as manpower and cunning war strategies to defeat Egyptian, Syrian and Persian military forces around 231 B.C.

Even the Romans found the Greek army to be a formidable military opponent.

In one extraordinary legend, 500 Greek soldiers allegedly managed to stop a Roman military ship from reaching the Greek shores. How? By turning their shields around and using the highly reflective and smooth concave surface to concentrate solar radiation on the ship to the point where it presumably caused the sails to catch fire above 400°C. The idea for this originated from the Greek philosopher Archimedes.

Still, the might of the Roman empire should not be underestimated too. Here, the great "testosterone-smelling" military machine of the Roman civilisation saw men push their horses, soldiers and their new and highly organised fighting techniques, stronger shields, and toughened swords to the limits as they expanded and conquered much of the known Western world. Only those nations that held a sufficiently large and powerful military force or provided something else of value to the Romans succeeded in surviving and maintaining their own unique cultures.

The latter approach was a particular favourite for Cleopatra of Egypt. During her reign as an Egyptian pharaoh, she used her feminine beauty, the power of sex, and her position as ruler of Egypt, to influence the great Roman leader, Julius Ceasar, and later the General of the Roman military machine by the name of Mark Anthony (also known as the Lord of the East) to spare Egypt from almost certain occupation and destruction by the Romans. Probably a wise choice. Together with other Egyptian wealth, Cleopatra's ability to provide carnal pleasure to the two crucial virile masculine leaders of this strongly L-brain society from Italy made it possible for Egypt to survive for quite a long time.

It was only after the strongly L-brain thinking Roman Octavian (who later changed his name to Augusta Ceasar) saw through Cleopatra's power did her great dream to become the new rulers of the world die with her and her lover Anthony.

After Cleopatra's death, Octavian became the emperor of Rome and the great city of Rome continued to flourish for another 400 years. Eventually the Roman empire would collapse around 476A.D.. Many factors played a part in the collapse, but the most notable were economic mismanagement in Rome and the decision to impose higher taxes, increasing numbers of invading foreign armies saw the Roman army defeated in more battles than ever before until eventually the Germanic leader Odoacer staged a revolt and deposed the Emperor Romulus Augustulus, and later more and more Roman people saw the benefits of taking up the new social ideas from Christians in the early centuries after the death of an unusually "balanced-thinking" young man with an outstanding knowledge of the power of love and how this man essentially sparked the beginnings of Christianity throughout the Western world. Eventually enough converted Romans accepted the teachings from Christians and eventually allowed the Church to establish a home in Rome.

2,100 YEARS AGO

Speaking of a new young leader, he appeared in the Middle East at this time to bring ideas and ways of living based on the principle of love to, yet again, an oppressed people in Israel and Palestine (it was a time when Roman occupation still manifested itself in this part of the world). He was born in the town of Bethleham on 17 April in 6 B.C. based on latest astronomical analysis of the sky after scientists noticed an unusual event consisting of a sudden appearance of a bright light in the northern morning sky under the constellation Aries by the planet Jupiter as it passed out of the lunar eclipse. No such unusual event existed in or around the 1 AD mark, as revealed in the BBC documentary Son of Man).

Why was he considered more "balanced" and knowledgeable compared to other humans living at this time? Did he get outside help with his education? Or did he learn for himself the right way to do things? We may never know. What we do know is that he did gather a thorough understanding of why people fought and accumulated wealth and power, how these people were more likely to become corrupt in their thinking and ways of doing things thanks to all this power and greed, as well as build pyramids in Egypt for extending one's life and the innumerable statues of different gods. From these observations he could see a solution and discovered something else about the issue of death. Part of the solution involved breaking the power held by the authorities by way of the Jewish priests, in providing basic medical help such as gaining access to clean water controlled by the priests in the temple and bathing people secretly at night (and even on the Sabbath) to solve many medical ailments (perhaps even an understanding of plant materials could have aided in his treatment of common human diseases), teaching people the principle of love through various stories, giving people the power to think for themselves and apply the principle of love as they have understood it from his teachings, and finally to make a brave point to all regarding the nature of death.

The young man realised the importance of keeping things simple and learning to be happy with what he had. In that way, he believed all people should be able to experience this happiness as well by sticking to what we need. This in turn would increase the security and enjoyment of life, with far less stress, and knowing there is love. It is not about trying to grab everything we want thinking this will bring us greater happiness. Rather, you live simply, help one another, develop deeper and more meaningful relationships, and treat people well. If you do, he realised there would be no need for war, and people would be genuinely happy and live in harmony with one another. People would forever live in peace (and hence more time to think and come up with original and great long-term solutions to any problems set before them or wish to pursue for the benefit of everyone else) so long as we all understood death was not meant to be the end, but just the beginning to a new adventure. God will take care of this aspect for all living things, as well as letting God (helped along a bit by us through our knowledge and efforts) provide everything people need (i.e. recycling and growing foods) as well as to resurrect those who have died. Everything will be in balance and in abundance if we do the right thing in what is effectively a heaven if we so choose.

In other words, this man  known simply as Jesus Christ  understood the principle of love in its fundamental sense, so much so that those individuals who were generally despised or were seen as the enemy were treated with dignity and love by this very open-minded and independent-thinking individual.

While all this happened in the Middle East. Jesus Christ was not the only person to emerge with some understanding of the power of love.

On the other side of the world, we learn of another balanced individual who also became disenchanted by the wealth and power accumulated in what was essentially a complicated, hierarchical and profit-driven L-brain society and the subsequent warfare to emerge from this approach. He saw the suffering that most ordinary people had to go through when supporting this approach, as well as life in general. Then one day, he decided to let go of his own material wealth, walked through the forests of India and meditated over extended periods of time. After about a couple of years, he re-emerged from the forests. What he saw about life and the universe and the simple technique he developed to understand our purpose in life and reach a more balanced mental and spiritual state in a process known as enlightenment would see hundreds of people support him.

His name was Siddhartha Gautama (ca. 563-483 B.C.) and his ability to reach a more balanced state without the use of drugs (i.e. through the power of meditation) as the key to breaking free from the shackles of human conditioning or pre-programmed patterns in the mind learned from other people in society (including human language itself) and so lead ultimately to the experience of true freedom from all suffering would quickly see him get tagged the "Awakened One" or simply "the Buddha" by some of his slightly more L-brain followers who wanted to give him a name.

Here is the story of how Siddhartha became a balanced and more spiritually-enlightened individual:

Siddartha Gautama was born in the fifth century BCE.

Siddhartha's father was a Hindu king and his mother died when Siddhatha was still a baby.

When he was born, Siddhartha's parents had his horoscope prepared. This said that he would either be a great ruler or a great spiritual leader. Naturally as his father was the king, he was keen for Siddhartha to be a great ruler so he made sure that while he was growing up he never saw anything to disturb his mind or encourage him to think about things in a deep way.

As Siddhartha reached adulthood his marriage was arranged and some time later he had a son. But he had led a very sheltered life within the Palace estate. As the time for him to become King approached he began to wonder what the world was like beyond the palace, so since he knew his father would disapprove, he arranged to go out secretly, with his friend Channa who was his charioteer.

Siddhartha was enchanted by the world outside the palace, but then he saw something very strange. A man was coming along the street, but he was bent and walking slowly, using a stick. And his hair was grey. Siddhartha had never seen an old man before and when Channa explained that everyone grows old, he was really shocked and upset. So they went back to the Palace.

Next day Siddhartha went out again with Channa. He hoped that he would not see another old man, and he did not - but he saw someone lying down, moaning and covered in sweat, breathing with difficulty. Siddhartha was curious and keen to help the man in some way - but Channa urged him to stay away, explaining that the man was sick. He was suffering from pain and a high fever. Siddhartha was upset, especially when Channa explained that he might catch the sickness if he went too close, and that everyone gets sick once in a while.

On the third day, Siddhartha asked Channa to take him a different way. He did not want to see any old people or sick people this time. All was well until they noticed a group of people approaching. Some people led the procession playing sad music and then some people passed by carrying a narrow bed. A man lay on this but he was covered in cloth which was piled up with flowers. Siddhartha could hardly see the man at all and asked Channa why this man was all covered up and why people were carrying him. Channa explained that this was a dead man. Siddhartha did not understand. When Channa explained about death he was horrified. Everyone has to die? Even his beautiful wife and sweet little son would die? It was unthinkable.

Again his day was ruined and when they went back to the palace Siddhartha was in a very quiet mood, thinking about all the things he had seen, the old man, the sick man and now the dead man. He was deeply shaken up by finding out about all these things.

They went out again next day and this time Siddhartha said he wanted to go somewhere right away from everyone. He just wanted some peace and quiet. So Channa took him down by the river where they could walk together enjoying nature's beauty. And there, by the river, sitting under a large tree, Siddhartha encountered another unusual sight. He saw a Hindu holy man sitting in deep meditation.

Siddhartha asked Channa who this strange man was and what he was doing. Why was he being so lazy? What was he doing with the beads he held? Channa explained that he was a holy man. He was repeating the name of God, using the beads to keep track of his chanting and praying for infinite peace, infinite bliss.

Siddhartha wanted to know what the man was doing. He wanted infinite peace, infinite bliss, himself. But Channa said that they should not disturb the holy man, so they returned to the Palace.

All the things that Siddhartha had seen occupied his mind from that day onwards. He could not go back to his old unconscious life of pleasure. He realised that he must find a way of ending suffering not just for himself, but for his wife and child too  indeed for everyone. Siddhartha decided that he must leave his family and the Palace. No more the life of luxury, he would renounce his former life and embrace the life of an ascetic, a wandering holy man, owning nothing, begging for his food and spending his days in prayer, meditation and spiritual discipline. He had to find a way of overcoming suffering.

After six years of travelling and studying at the feet of the wisest people he could find, practising exercises and disciplines to develop control of his senses &151; including fasting and practically starving himself &151; Siddhartha said enough was enough. He sat under a large Bodhi tree at Bodh Gaya in Northern India and vowed that here he would either discover the truth or die in the attempt.

Siddhartha entered into an unusually deep state of meditation and remained there for days if not weeks without moving from the spot. A woman who lived nearby was impressed by his sincerity and intensity. She brought him food each day and he accepted it. He came to see that everything should be done in a balanced way. It is not necessary or helpful to starve the body any more than it is necessary or helpful to live a life of luxury. The middle way is by far the best.

The Buddha never spoke about God but he did describe the demons that attacked him while he was meditating under the Bodhi tree. They were desperate to distract him from his quest for the truth. But he was able to remain in his deep meditation and ignore them completely. As he reached new levels of awareness and understanding, he broke free from the shackles of human ignorance and limitation. He touched the ground and called on the Earth to witness his victory over the demons and his inner achievement.

Siddhartha was now enlightened. He felt that for the first time in his entire life he could see the world as it was, with a new clarity and understanding. He said it was like waking up. 'The Buddha' means 'The Enlightened One".

The Buddha was not sure if it would be possible to share the insights he had discovered, but he met some ascetics who he had known before he was enlightened. They could tell from looking at him that something special had happened to him. They could sense the extraordinary new wisdom and light that radiated from him and they asked him to teach them what he saw. So there, in the Deer Park at Sarnath (near Varanasi, in India) he began his teaching.

The Buddha spent the rest of his life teaching his philosophy and setting up 'The Sangha' a community of Monks and Nuns whose lives were dedicated to following his teachings.

After a very full and fruitful life, at the age of eighty, The Buddha died and entered into his final Nirvana. His students cremated his body and took his ashes to places which were important to them. They erected memorials there and these are still places of Buddhist pilgrimage.

The leading Buddhists met and collected together all his teachings. These were memorised and passed down by word of mouth for many years. Much of a Buddhist Monk's time would be spent in learning the teachings perfectly so that they were passed on unchanged until they were eventually written down.

The religion to emerge from this ordinary man with a heightened sense of reality and would affect over 50 per cent of the Indian population 2,000 years later is called Buddhism.

Yet no matter how non-violent the Buddhist religion and the knowledge it promotes might appear, the Universe exists due to the cyclic interplay of opposites. And as such, one can expect an opposite group of people to always disagree with the enlightened one and his beliefs. These are the predominantly L-brain types with power, lust and greed and always trusting of what they see with their own eyes. They see only one reality created by them and have developed a certain way of coping with this reality thinking this is the only way to do things. As a result, this opposing group of people thought it was better to destroy this early group of Buddhists. It didn't work as word reached a number of leaders and followers of the new religion. The religion would survive after many of the supporters and their leaders quickly escaped the impending warfare and later settled in various parts of India.

Need another example?

In the mid-1800s, we had another "enlightened" male individual named Mikao Usui in Japan who decided to not only practice martial arts but later entered a Zen monastery to study the ancient texts of Buddhism known as the Sutras. It is here that he noticed the healing practices of an ancient religion called Reiki or Usui Shikiu Reiki Ryoho. Still unsure of the effectiveness of the practices, at some point in his life, Usui made the climb to the sacred Mount Kurama to fast and meditate for 21 days.

As a way of counting the number of days, Usui collected 21 stones. Then, something unusual happened after he threw the last stone. It is claimed a "brilliant light" approached Usui as he was meditating. He felt an energy came over him and had intense feelings of well being. He then saw certain symbols and methods of Reiki which gave him confidence he was on the right track with Reiki before he lost consciousness. He eventually awakened and realised he had received the power to heal.

Today the religion of Reiki continues as a handful of Reiki leaders attempt to re-kindle the positive side of the ever-flowing light energy of the universe as a healing method (most probably electromagnetic radiation concentrated by our bodies and emitted usually through the hands to produce a sense of warmth, and so opening up blood vessels and helping to enhance the healing process within living tissue). It also teaches the importance of the principle of love during the healing process (perhaps by getting the body to emit the right hormones and other biochemicals for raising the immune system response to fighting infections).

Or exercising and massaging the tissues regularly can probably generate the same level of warmth and extra blood flow to help with the healing process?

Such interesting stories of men who once lived a rich and comfortable lifestyle and later changed to a more frugal and simpler life after seeing the injustices and/or inequalities of modern society are not unusual.

Before the Western world was ever influenced by the ideas of one such man born to a humble carpenter and his young wife in a place where Palestine and Israel now exists (so what in the heck are the people in these countries fighting for today? Jerusalem? What about making their own nations a Jerusalem in their own right?), a man named Moses nearly 1,600 B.C. claimed to have given away all his wealth and power in Egyptian society after gathering a deeper understanding of the principle of love. As a young man, Moses saw how slaves were mistreated under Egyptian rule. However, in trying to stop the brutality, he inadvertently killed an Egyptian captor. And death of an Egyptian is punishable by death irrespective of who might be right under the circumstances.

When Jesus was alive, he already lived a simple life. With plenty of time on his side, he would observe, think and learn something about his environment and the people that lived in it. He would gather stories from various sources and created his own that helped to understand the human condition. He then learned how to be a good teacher where he would preach and practice the very same principle of love as he understood it from his more humble beginnings and the knowledge we had acquired. His knowledge was presented in simple laymen's terms through a more compassionate approach using effective story-telling techniques. His understanding of love and God is more a reward-based psychology as revealed in the New Testament where thinking for yourself what the principle of love means once you have a solid understanding of it and in acquiring ideas such as living for eternity and how death is not seen as the end became an integral part of his thinking. He also would promulgate the existence of a kingdom of heaven where we can all strive for and experience here on Earth if we do the right thing under the principle of love. And he also taught people not to be afraid to think for themselves and do things that are right and with love.

Today, in the 21st century, we have no such highly influential world religious leader of the likes of Jesus or Moses. The nearest might be the Dalai Lama in Buddhism. Unfortunately he has no effective means to influence other leaders, including the Chinese government. Not even a few miracles can be thrown in for good measure by the Buddhist leader to help make people sit up and take notice, listen, and do the right thing. His skills in understanding aspects of modern life and to see the interconnections and present them simply and with authority all that he sees and the solutions to all the problems is just not in the same league as those in the past. Something tells us we need another leader to really set the world on the right track

Will we, yet again, need another person to teach humanity the principle of love? Given how few people today are listening to the wise men of the past and their knowledge of the principle of love, perhaps humanity needs a woman to do the job properly (as is usually the case in the home when men forget to do the right thing). The question is who will do the job?

Unfortunately, most men in the Middle East don't allow women to become leaders. So it seems there is a fat chance of this happening anytime soon (unless God arrives and shows us a woman). Also, men may claim to have listened to the words of wise men in religious texts, but continue to misinterpret the knowledge to serve their own selfish power-struggle aims. We only have to look at Islam today to see how some leaders continue to misinterpret the scriptures from their own religious book with the sole aim of getting poorer people to do the dirty work of harming foreigners (or so-called "non-muslims" or the "infidels").

It is starting to look like only another and perhaps more direct intervention by an extraterrestrial civilisation with all of humanity will solve this problem. The problem is, will our brains be big enough to remember and apply the knowledge for all times?

Or why not throw down an asteroid or two on Earth and then maybe people will quickly get their priorities right?

YEARS AGO

An important male figure made his appearance in a region we call Palestine and Israel. The ideas he would promulgate would challenge the religious views of Jewish priests. For example, he saw himself as a "god" but not God (which greatly infuriated the Jewish priests and considered this man was guilty of blasphemy as if they did not understand what he was saying), and that there is only one God with only one name (in other words, never pray to other false gods pretending to be God). He also disagreed with the view from Jewish priests of an authoritarian God that was willing to punish people for making a mistake as revealed in the Old Testament. Forgiveness became an essential part of his teachings and dealings with certain sinners because he saw a more compassionate side to God. He would supplement this knowledge with a thorough understanding of the principle of love considered by his contemporaries to be more all-encompassing of different people and their circumstances. He would carry exceptional knowledge of certain medicinal plants and techniques to help in the healing process of many poor people (and understood the importance of giving poor people access to clean and fresh water for cleaning as well as for drinking). And he would go as far as to put his own life on the line and almost died on the cross in the infamous crucifixion introduced by the Romans as the primary means of punishing and killing people for wrong-doings just to prove a point about the nature of the life and the Universe.

Indeed, going by the gospels in the Bible, it would appear that in the latter circumstance, this strange man was allegedly taken away by a mysterious entity coming from the sky from a tomb prepared by the disciples and his mother according to Roman accounts of what happened. Even though two strong romans could roll the heavy stone into position to seal the entrance to the tomb and was watched over by other romans, something had frightened off the watch guards one night. The next morning, the stone was found moved and the tomb opened to allow Mary Magdalane to enter and discover the body had disappeared. After Mary went to some considerable effort to convince the male disciples of what she saw, eventually they were all able to see the man become "resurrected" (presumed to have died on the cross, but no one was a medical expert to be sure about it). It would appear than this unusual man was quietly revived by God despite his horrific injuries (but the healing was observed not to have been perfect as this man still revealed the scars where the nails were driven into his limbs). His return was meant to show to his closest supporters that death is not the end, but the beginning to a new adventure, and a logical progression to the next stage in our existence here in the Universe.

He presented his final teachings to his closest disciples (with extra attention given to Mary Magdalene, including one private teaching that none of the male disciples realised had occurred, and is seen today as a means of testing all the male disciples to determine if they would forgive her, and ultimately the man himself, and continue to accept women in the group). Feeling that he had completed his essential work, he turned the disciples into apostles and ready to pass on the knowledge to others. Mary Magdalene together with John the Baptist were given the task of being the shared leaders of the new Christian religion where the other apostles can rely on for advice and assistance, only to see later that it needed a strong male with leadership qualities named Peter to push the religion among other males and eventually started the Church in Rome. And then, under spectacular fashion, he departed into a great cloud with various lights described as angels of which one had descended to carry the man away as witnessed by his disciples (Mary Magdalene was present) according to the Book of Acts written by one of the apostles named Luke and in the gnostic texts written by Mary Magdalene (an attempt to portray this interesting event, unfortunately without Mary Magdalene present, can be seen in the 2016 movie Risen directed by Kevin Reynolds).

The man we are talking about here was named Jesus Christ. A strange young, and unusually charismatic male with a willingness to challenge authority whenever he saw the principle of love not being followed. His influence among the numerous poor people he helped through his healing powers and the teachings he presented to the people and shared with his chosen disciples (iin the latter case it was done in a more direct and simplified approach to help them learn the concepts behind the stories as quickly as possible) saw a new religion called Christianity get created by his disciples, who in turn spread his teachings to as many people as possible.

Starting in the Middle East and eventually centralising the decision-making process for the religion in Rome by one of the male disciples, the teachings spread throughout most parts of Europe. Despite Jewish priests refusing to accept Jesus as someone with a connection to God, the religion continued to spread, reaching almost all corners of the world.

At the same time, a new calendar system was established to mark the apparent death of Jesus on the cross (even though he did not die) as year 0 and enough nations accepted this change.

Finally, the male leaders of the Church made active efforts to select their preferred gospels and removed anything that would be considered a little too controversial. This included the close relationship between Mary Magdalene and Jesus, which we are told in the gnostic texts that Jesus wanted to show to his male disciples how any woman can "think like a male" and partake in any intellectual rigour of religious discussions once he trained her in the right way. Also, anything to suggest that Jesus was just another man, despite his exceptional knowledge of the principle of love, would be almost blotted out of history. Even though Jesus said that he felt anyone could learn and apply his knowledge in order to do greater things than he did (after teaching his listeners to think for themselves with the help of his parables and stories), the male Church leaders preferred to make Jesus a truly holy man greater than any human could ever achieve. Indeed, the leaders would take on a new view that Jesus was effectively God in flesh form. With the preferred gospels firmly at hand, a new unified religious text was created. It combined the Jewish Old Testament views of the previous authoritarian God with the New Testament teachings of Jesus showing the more loving and compassionate side of God. The name given to this book is the Bible.

As a result of this deliberate and careful selection, it helped the Church in Roman to justify its position as needing to be male-dominated in all its leadership positions, including the Pope (on the grounds that it is part of the tradition). The reality is, women had always had an equal footing in the new religion as Jesus had wanted to see.

Can we rely on the gospels in the Bible to provide some useful historical information? Here is the view of Father Dwight Longenecker, a Pastor from Greenville, South Carolina, on this aspect:

"The gospels are not factual news reports....They are not typical biography or the work of a professional historian. Neither are the gospels academic historical documents which are cross referenced with multiple documentary, archaeological and anecdotal evidence. The gospels are...recorded accounts of personal experiences of multiple individuals from within a faith community. They are the written record of the stories told and sermons preached by the immediate followers of Jesus Christ about his life, teaching and death.

Most scholars conclude that the synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke) were composed before the death of St Peter and St Paul in the year 65AD, and that the gospel of John was composed around the year 90AD. Some scholars say the Gospel of John is the first gospel written  in the 50s  just twenty years after the death of Christ (JAT Robinson).

Who wrote the gospels Matthew is the only one of the three synoptic gospels authored by one of the Apostles himself. John is also written by an apostle. Mark was a disciple of Paul and Peter, and the early traditions say that he recorded Peter's sermons and accounts of the life of Christ. Luke was also a companion of Paul and the early traditions are that he is the doctor who traveled with Paul, and that Luke also knew the Virgin Mary....

We can therefore conclude with the majority of scholars that Mark's gospel was indeed written by John Mark the companion of Peter, and Luke's gospel was written by Luke, the companion of Paul. Their sources, therefore, were Peter and Paul  both eyewitnesses to the events portrayed in the gospel. Furthermore, these gospels were written just thirty years after the events described.

The fact that the gospels were records of sermons to the early church community strengthens the case for historical reliability because the community itself would exercise a form of check and balance with the historical record....They are not the creation of any one individual, but the record of the stories and accounts and memories from many individuals. This multiplicity of sources adds an astounding level of veracity to the gospels since those many different sources check and balance and correct one another....

In addition to this we must consider the Jewish context of the early church. A strict memorization of the Scriptures is part of the Jewish tradition. Jewish boys even today for their Bar Mitzvah have to memorize parts of the Scripture and are checked for it word by word. In the first century, with the scarcity of manuscripts, boys were taught to memorize the entire Old Testament, and to recite the accounts of the history of their people word for word....The stories of Jesus Christ were told and re-told within this Jewish context by Jews who were the first Christians.

Critics of the historicity of the gospels like to talk in vague terms of "the mythological elements" which crept into the gospel account. However, no one actually quotes chapter and verse. That is because there are no "mythological elements." Those who talk about mythological elements are clearly ignorant not only of the gospels themselves, but of what mythology actually consists of. What they usually mean by 'mythological elements' is the supernatural. The gospels do indeed contain supernatural elements, but these supernatural experiences &151; angels appearing to people or miracles happening &151; are recounted as real events that were recorded because they were real events and therefore all the more astonishing. The supernatural elements presuppose belief in a supernatural dimension.,,,

When confronted with the accounts of the miraculous we have to ask ourselves why anyone would fabricate a tale which is so obviously incredible. Why would twelve other men corroborate the tale if it had not happened? The only possible motivation for fabricating a story would be that more people would join their religion. But that religion didn't do anything for them. It did not bring them fame or fortune or power or glory. On the contrary, it only brought them ridicule, persecution, torture, hardship and eventually death.

Surely a person who was fabricating tales &151; or even allowing them to be exaggerated &151; would not have the moral fortitude to then die an agonizing death for those lies. The record of supernatural events does not negate, therefore, the historical claims of a document....

Critics point to the discrepancies of detail between the gospel accounts. Here a character is missing, there an incident happened a bit differently - here there is confusion about who a character is related to. Here the chronology di ers between one account and another. This is put forward as a criticism of the historicity of the accounts, but when this is examined more thoughtfully it actually proves the authenticity of the gospels. Wouldn't it be much more suspicious if there were four di erent accounts of the same events and they matched perfectly? Then we would surely conclude that there was a work of fabrication and serious editing going on. Instead we find four different accounts which essentially agree, but which differ in detail. This is exactly what you would expect from four different perspectives from four different witnesses of the same event....

It is true that the gospels do not measure up to the standards of modern critical historical practice. But they do not purport to be modern, scientifically verifiable documents. They are the records of real events experienced by real people."

YEARS AGO

The last known major eruption of New Zealand's Taupo caldera on the northern island, and the most violent in the last 5,000 years. Taupo began erupting 300,000 years ago and ever since a major eruption would come in a cyclic period of roughly 1,000 to 3,000 year. Today, the caldera is partly filled with a large body of freshwater called Lake Taupo.

to YEARS AGO

Around the year 426 A.D., a young teenager living in a rich English family was taken away by pirates to be sold as a slave among a group of poorer Pagan people of Ireland. Many years of hardship through hunger, cold, rain and loneliness in a foreign country taught him to rely more strongly on his Christian faith for a sense of stability in a new world that seemed to lack the necessary understanding of love.

One day, as he tended to the sheep of his captors, he realised how the one true God in the things he observed in nature was sustaining him and keeping him alive despite all the suffering (the sunshine for warmth, the fresh water satisfying his thirst, the foods he found for additional sustenance etc.). Then he heard a voice in his head suggesting that he can return home in a ship if he followed his faith.

After 6 years being held against his will in a foreign land, his creative and defiant spirit finally took over and he followed the voice in his head to see where it would lead him. The young man decided to escape on foot across Ireland despite the risk to his life if he was captured, relying simply on the water and food of the land for nourishment and his intelligence and creativity to avoid detection.

Miraculously he managed to reach the Eastern coast of Ireland where he found someone who was prepared to take him back to England after observing how this strange man was able to pray like a Christian. Clearly this was no ordinary Irishman.

On his return to England, he was welcomed with open arms by his family and the people of his own township. Soon everyone learned of the man's incredible story of capture, living in Ireland, and how he escaped the land. It was considered at the time the first person to ever do so as a slave.

It wasn't long before his remarkable story and strong Christian faith would see English priests sufficiently impressed to allow the young man to become a priest himself and later a bishop. Yet his life's work had only just began.

The voice of God seemed to call him once again saying the people of Ireland needed him. It would take him some time to resign himself to the fact that he had a task to perform in this foreign land. Understandable considering the hardship he went through. Yet somehow he must have realised the people of Ireland were missing something in their lives. The multiple gods in this ancient and brutal Pagan society and not seeing the power of love was not helping the people to see a better way of living.

The lack of love in a nation yearning to be loved eventually brought the man back to Ireland.

Over the next few years he convinced an incredible number of Irish people to follow the one true loving God by using a simple language spoken in the native tongue of Ireland which he had learned during his time as a slave. The ideas of God and love and in solving many social problems in an alternative way helped the people to understand life more clearly and to reach for yet another higher level of existence through the Christian faith.

In return for this knowledge, the people of Ireland gave him the love and the things he needed to survive and live peacefully.

Back in England the Christian king and some of the bishops were getting jealous of the man's increasing fame and success. They wanted to pick on his weaknesses in a vain attempt to see him as a sinner. The man had to return to England to answer charges that he had sinned unto God.

The man tried to convince his fellow Christians in England that what he did for the people if Ireland was right. For example, he did not speak Latin to the people of Ireland and his methods were somewhat unorthodox. Yet this should not have made a difference when speaking the language of love. Unfortunately the behaviour of his colleague priests and bishops still weren't in keeping with the Christian faith and the true principle of love as he understood it. The man felt disillusioned by the Christian leaders in England. In the end, he realised that he could no longer stay in a country that forgot so easily the true principle of love and maintaining traditions. The Christian faith in England was preoccupied with following specific rules from the head of the Church in Rome. The place he once called home was forever abandoned. He returned to Ireland where he felt the people could benefit more from his teachings than he could ever achieve from his so-called Christians in England. He wrote letters explaining his strong convictions, how God spoke to him, and gave a clear account of his entire life story in vivid detail.

His courage and persistence in writing eventually saw him left alone by the religious authorities in England. Perhaps the man felt abandoned in Ireland by the English religious authorities. Yet the Irish people made him feel at home as he continued to help them until his death.

The man's incredible strength, sacrifice, determination to survive, conviction and support for his own understanding of the principle of love as taught by the original religious leader in the Bible, appreciating the simple life, realising how nature was supporting him as God would, to allow his mind and body to acutely be sensitive to his natural environment, to think about problems and be an excellent problem solver, and his tremendous love for the Irish people, even those who the English Christians thought could never be helped, had turned him into a Saint.

Today the Irish people remember the man as St Patrick, which is celebrated on 17 March every year.

YEARS AGO

A group of Polynesians known as the Rapanui sailed east to reach an uninhabited island in the South Pacific. It was a place of remarkable beauty. The island, being relatively large, had a seemingly unlimited supply of trees and fresh water, and to a certain extent this was the kind of thinking a number of the first settlers had on arriving at this untouched tropical wilderness. Not knowing how the fresh water was maintained and how important the trees were to the local ecology and sustaining the natural resources, certain humans were poised to create a disaster for everyone else depending on what tthey did next and whether they could learn and change their way of thinking. Unfortunately, some of those early humans to the island had trouble breaking free from the shackles of their own traditional thinking. Now the stage was set for the demise of humans on this island, or at least a significant reduction in its population. The eventual disaster would not happen straightaway. It would take time. Time for humans to go about using up the natural resources over the next couple of centuries.

The place where this happened is called Easter Island.

As the people settled on the island, they did not realise the amount of fresh water was highly dependent on the availability of trees to condense the moist air on the surface of the leaves. Furthermore, the island's natural landscape helped the moist air to rise and form water droplets called clouds or fog over mountain tops. The droplets slowly get larger and fall to the ground at night. Trees provide a secondary benefit of preventing the ground water from evaporating. Enough water on the ground ensures not all the moisture is absorbed in the soil. Excess water flows downhill and later combine to create small streams. They then collect in ponds and small lakes. Eventually they overflow, and the water continues to flow downhill until it reaches the oceans. Having extra moisture on the island to create adequate clouds and enough rainfall or foggy conditions to help maintain the whole natural cyclic system was the key to why the island remained so lushes and self-sustaining.

In terms of the number of trees, scientists have estimated there were a healthy 20 million in total, comprising mostly of palm trees. In the summer time, rain clouds could be seen forming regularly over the island thanks to the shape of the land to raise its moist air to a suitable height, and its abundance of trees to condense the moisture into droplets of water. While the trees remained, everything looked to be in plentiful supply to the new settlers. Together with the abundant supply of fish in the oceans acquired by the fishermen in boats made by the trees on the island, it seemed the place was just like back home in Polynesia.

Then, some time around 1,100AD, the number of trees diminished significantly, and the ability to grow and gather food from the oceans and on land was being curtailed somewhat. Either the population was getting too large, greed and power were in the minds of a handful of men, or it was a combination of the two. Whatever the reason for this situation, the population split into several different tribes, each with a different approach to solving the problems on the island. Unfortunately the one causing all the problems still remained. It is the people who maintained the view that "she will be right, mate!". Just give it enough time and the rains will return if we appease the gods in some religious way and before you know it the trees will grow back to give everyone what they needed. This is the real problem. One of the tribes thought the remaining resources could still be plundered. As a result, that tribe probably used more of the resources to stay strong and win the equivalent of the annual Birdman competition to see which tribe would lead all the other tribes and tell them what should be done on the island. Unfortunately, one tribe tended to win the competition more often. And it was the one that still could not see the island's natural forest was being decimated from human activity and would not instigate some for of adequate recycling of the resources.

As the food supplies went down and the number of trees diminished, a religion was formed. The leaders of this stronger tribe would direct other tribes to build statues to keep the gods happy on the assumption that they would provide an abundance of food for the next year. This approach was repeated for many years.

Not everyone in the other tribes would agree with this approach. Some people believed it was better to plant new palm trees and other plants. Unfortunately it takes time to grow the trees. Smaller plants for food had a better chance to grow quickly.

One further complication to the life of the people on Easter Island was the presence of seasons. In the summer time, the island felt very much like one of the Polynesian islands  moist and hot. In the winter time, temperatures would drop far more than expected. The island's geographical location being further south of the equator would create this seasonal change in climate and temperature. Combined with the need for wood to build boats for fishing, burning palm trees for warmth would have placed a further strain on the island's natural forest.

There were attempts by people in the other tribes to reverse the trend in the tree populations. New trees were being planted, but to reach a reasonable size would take time.

Time was not on the side of the people living on the island. Before the last big tree was cut down, some of the people from the opposing tribes thought the idea of carving out statues from the volcanic rock was a waste of time. Several large boats were constructed and some of the people went onto the high seas to escaped the insanity and they travelled further east until they reached South America. Others made the decision to go west following the winds to return to the other Polynesian islands.

A time came when the last tree was cut down. This was a dangerous time. No more trees meant no more replacement canoes or even to keep warm in the winter. And no canoes quickly saw a growing number of people experiencing regular malnutrition. Only enough crops growing on the land was just sustaining a smaller population. Something had to change.

Soon a decision was made by the other tribes to stop the silly building of the great Easter Island statues including a number from the tribe that believed in unlimited supplies. All this work was clearly not helping the situation of growing enough food for the people. The religious aims of certain leaders in this other tribe would collapse. It was likely that the leaders who supported the religious views were rounded up and burned in a ditch.

Afterwards, food became carefully rationed.

The population grew slightly as the people adapted to a different way of life and method of growing food. Then in the 18th century, visits from Dutch and South American sailors added further pressure to the Rapanui people. A fight broke out with the Dutch in 1722 resulting in the deaths of 12 Rapanui men, mainly because it was thought the visitors would impact on the resources of the island. But then a truce was made once the people of the island understood the purpose of the visit.

Then the Spanish sailors arrived 48 years later. They brought with them new diseases such as chicken pox. Up to 1,500 of the islanders were also brought to South America. When a number of them returned, many had sexually transmitted diseases that soon wiped out many of the remaining inhabitants on the island.

As we can see, twice there was a near collapse of the entire population of original inhabitants on the island. Using up the trees on the island for boat building, burning them for warmth in the winter, and to act as the wheels for transporting the great rock statues to many of their current positions (and later abandoned to just erecting them at the place where they were sourced, mainly in a quarry of volcanic rocks and later the practice was stopped altogether) was the first stage. People then changed their ways as many people found themselves seriously malnourished. Luckily for the people, over a period of time, and perhaps through a reduction in the population, many were able to carve out a new living. Then the second and final stage was more devastating with new diseases from other worlds reaching the island and its people and decimating the population.

Despite all these factors affecting the survival of the people, approximately 100 of the original inhabitants survived. Today the island has a stable and thriving population, only because tourism and the availability of ships to bring supplies to the island has made sure the original inhabitants can survive. Without this help, it is likely the last of the inhabitants would have died out in the early 20th century, leaving behind only a handful of birds and insects finding a tiny niche in this part of the world.

Will the people of Western society today go in the same way as the people of Easter Island? Or will we be forced to adapt to a world without trees and rely on tourism to somehow keep the economic system ticking over? Or will there have to be a new world order, and one that is more closely aligned to the re-building and protection of our natural environment?

to YEARS AGO

The time of the Aztecs would reign supreme in central Mexico.

It began around 1150 AD when as many as 175,000 people came into the Valley of Mexico  a fertile valley containing a plentiful supply of water and rich fertile lands. Any wars that may have existed between feuding tribal groups prior to this time  probably over food and territory  had vanished as if by agreement, or the realisation that in a land filled with abundance there was no need to fight each other.

As more people came to the area, some of the original people who owned the fertile land decided it would be better to lease it to others to do the work of growing food and so free up the land owners time to do other things, enjoy more luxuries from society, increase their wealth, and develop greater power when making decisions for a greater number of people (does this remind you of any modern civilisation?). As the population swelled to around 1 million in the late Aztec period of 1350 to 1519 AD, people were placing considerable stress on the environment. By early 1500 AD, all available fertile land and surface water in the valley were virtually exhausted. Why? Because the land was being frivolously and carelessly cleared of the trees, rain washed the valuable nutrients away from the soil making it harder to grow food, and the swamp was drained of its waters to create raised fields and places for some of the inhabitants to live which in turn increased evaporation of the water to the hot Sun.

As resources dwindled and populations expand, a hierarchical system of powerful Aztec rulers, religious leaders and elite overlords began monopolising power in the city. The early abundance of food and other goods hoarded by the rich and powerful and later leased the land to other people to help make more riches created a separate class of people called the commoners. Soon they created their own markets free of state control. People could produce their own goods consisting of growing water-thirsty cotton crops and making cotton textiles, as well as pottery, statuettes and offering other kinds of services.

Yet no matter how much richer the rulers got, or how many people worked the land, the environment wasn't getting any better. The rains became increasingly infrequent and the crops were not as plentiful as they once were.

The rich and powerful with their lack of environmental knowledge probably passed laws into Aztec society making it a requirement for commoners to work harder and for longer or pay the upper class more money as well as food as if the leaders thought too many commoners were dole bludgers and were not providing adequate contribution to society to help explain the low resource situation. The truth, however, was that some of the rich and powerful were probably locked away in their own world of luxury that made them oblivious to the environmental destruction, or thought things will return to normal some day (the modern day equivalent of rich R-wing people who don't believe in climate change). While others, namely the religious leaders of later generations immune to life on the land and thus no understanding of hard work in growing food, had no practical knowledge to give to the commoners and were increasingly resorting to religion for a solution as people sought answers.

What is the point of a civilisation relying on religion? Weren't the commoners given practical (more scientific) knowledge of how to look after the environment and recycle everything they produced? Part of the reason must be because the rich and powerful were afraid of giving too much knowledge to the commoners. Knowledge is a dangerous thing to have in the wrong hands. It could undermine the power of those who were rich and supposedly leading society along the right path. The other reason could be to do with the way some rich and powerful Aztec rulers and overloads became obsessed with death.

Some of the questions that may have filled the minds of the rich and powerful at the time could have included, What's the purpose of life? Is there a greater meaning to our existence? Is it really to fill one's belly with food that the whole meaning of our existence and the purpose of life and the Universe can be understood? If it is was, why do people still die? Why is death so much a part of this Universe and life cannot escape from it? And why do people continue to suffer?

This fatally flawed obsession consumed the life of the rich and powerful and eventually the religious leaders whose job it was to support the elite in finding a solution to this great problem, and in understanding the great environmental disaster taking place.

Eventually the practical knowledge of how to grow food and look after the environment would be supplemented or perhaps, after a period of time, replaced by religious knowledge. Religion became the dominant feature of the Aztec's lives. Once the rich and powerful accepted religion as the only solution, the scene was set for the destruction of a great civilisation.

Towards the end of the Aztec empire between 1500 and 1519 AD, the commoners became very poor as they tried desperately to resort to non-food products such as cotton and increasing the production of textiles to sell to whoever could afford to buy it and so help them to pay the elite overlords for the land as well as import any food from towns and villages far away. Soon religious activities increased as a way for the people and the leaders to solve the food shortages. And among the beliefs created by the religious leaders and accepted by the rich and powerful was why there was hardship in not growing enough food: the idea that the gods were unhappy. To make the gods happy again, people must have thought these supernatural beings needed to be nourished and maintained like those of the elite in order for the people to be nourished and maintained with an abundance of food.

How did this belief come about? It seems the religious leaders found a way to appease the gods by observing how the dead buried in a plot of land after a period of time and receiving some water can suddenly grow a abundance of vegetation than in an area not containing the dead as if somehow the bodies were helping to restore the land and bring back fertility. So a religious idea was born: why not sacrifice some blood to the Earth as this may somehow nourish the gods and grow more food? As crude as the idea may seem to us today, it does provide a primitive way of understanding why death exists in the Universe.

We know without death, life in the Universe would not exist. No one could survive in an infinite population of the living. Death is an inherent part of this Universe in order for life in the Universe to exist and with reasonable comfort (depending on the population levels and how sustainable it is). However, for those who are alive today, it does require the natural recycling systems of the Universe and the diversity of life itself to work in order for balance to be restored. Thus one could create a story to help explain this inherent nature of the Universe by saying death is a way to make God happy and restore balance to the Universe for the rest of life to continue.

Unfortunately some religious leaders in Aztec society took the idea too far.

As first some blood letting performed in rituals under these leaders may have coincided with some periods of rain to help reinforce the idea. When the rains stopped again and would not return for a longer period of time, the leaders thought it was necessary for more and more blood to be spilled to make the gods (i.e. the environment) happy. Soon many people had to die in these sacrifices to help bring a sense of balance to the Universe and with it the impression that humans have appeased God, or the gods (whoever or whatever is responsible for controlling the production of food and water in the valley).

To further add to the woes of the Aztecs, the constant war between the Aztecs and Tarascan people eventually saw enough weapons smuggled cross the border from Tarascan and into the hands of the commoners through the Aztec market system. The time was ripe for a major revolt.

The tipping point finally came when certain religious leaders were asking too much from the commoners. And too many people from outside the Aztec community were being sacrificed (including babies because of how some religious leaders were developing a psychopathic view of blood and tears of the babies representing the rain in the eyes of the gods). Too much was being destroyed to appease the gods. On top of all this was the fact that the elite in the Aztec civilisation could no longer be paid properly and too many people were beginning to starve for food as society began to descend into self-destruction.

The rich and powerful must have sensed something terrible was about to happen. They probably tried to protect themselves by building a military force. Yet the stupidity continued. Rather than meeting with the people and searching for alternative solutions, the leaders hid themselves in their fortified and luxurious homes. Finally, the massive population of commoners eventually saw through all the religious crap. The decision to bring back balance in their own way started and there was nothing to stop it. It turned out to be brutal and violent. The loyal soldiers for the elite could not stop it, or more likely they joined with the commoners knowing they had no chance to protect the rich and powerful. Now the people had the power to change the future. No longer would they continue working for the dysfunctional leaders and support the outrageous religious rituals. The final act was really a bloody end, followed by looting and a great fire consuming all the resources and representations of deities and gods held by the rich and powerful. What could have been a prosperous and peaceful society if it took a balanced and more frugal approach to living and had understood the power of recycling everything including the biggest natural recycler of all  our environment  instead caused the civilisation to take the road to self-destruction.

We can only hope modern human society will take heed of these warning signs before it is too late.

YEARS AGO

By no later than 1445AD, the last of the big flightless wingless birds were hunted to extinction on the islands of New Zealand by the Maori within a century of human arrival. Known as the Moa, these docile birds stood up to an impressive 3.5 metres in height. Now scientists believe they know why they disappeared. After analysing the growth rings in the stored bones of extinct Moas, scientists discovered the two Moa species may have taken several years to reach reproductive maturity and up to a decade to have a strong enough skeletal frame to defend itself and run away from the humans as well as support their offsprings. Without adequate time to reproduce, humans became the idiots in the demise of this bird. Instead of looking at the situation like a giant Kentucky Fried Chicken experience, they could not learn to be sustainable and protect the resources available to them. Blame it on the males of the human species whose egos and food demands are suddenly inflated every time they kill an animal much bigger than themselves. Such a macho thing to do, isn't it?

For an animal having the largest brain in comparison to its body, we are acting more like we have the smallest brain in comparison to our body.

YEARS AGO

We see battles continuing throughout history between people of different religious faiths as if some people were trying to prove one faith is better and presumably closer to the one and true God compared to other faiths. The classic example is the battle of Vienna on 11 and 12 September 1683.

In this battle, Vienna was besieged by the Ottoman Empire led by a well-respected Turkish warrior and leader named Grand Vizier Merzifonlu Kara Mustafa Pasha. No less than 90,000 and as many as 300,000 men under the rule of Mustafa had amassed on the grounds outside the walls of Vienna. The aim of the Turkish leader was to take back the territory the Ottoman Empire had once occupied for a brief period over what was effectively a long and bloody battle lasting over 300 years between the Christian believers of the Holy Roman Empire living in Europe and those who believed in the Islamic faith, as can be found among the people of Turkey and some parts of Eastern Europe.

The battle ended almost as quickly as the Turkish leader arrived when Mustafa made the fatal decision just before the battle began of not securing a mountain ridge nearby despite one of the leaders of an alliance group recommending this should be done. As a result, an ageing Polish General saw an opportunity to inflict considerable damage and casualties to the large numbers of men that Mustafa had concentrated on the ground. With agreement of all other leaders from various supporting Christian-based European countries, the Polish leader ordered his men to lift a number of heavy cannons into position at the top of the ridge during the night and in the rain. By the following day, the battle for Vienna quickly swung around in favour of the Christians thanks to the terrible damage caused by the cannons on Mustafa's army. The remaining soldiers on the ground forced into disarray were taken care of by Polish forces and the various other groups forming the European alliances.

It was a humiliating defeat for the Turkish leader. And since Islam does not believe in forgiveness as Christians do, Mustafa had to pay with his life by being strangled by two men as a witness to the rest of remaining army of what happens when leaders fail to deliver.

Over the next 16 years, European armies largely removed any remaining pockets of the Ottoman forces, thereby ending any dreams of leaders in Turkey of occupying much of Europe.

But why should a battle of different faiths have to take place at all?

What people don't seem to realise is that the way certain individuals express their faith in a God does not make their God amore important or different from anyone's else's faith in a God. There is only one God. What are we trying to prove by going to war? All the names we may give to God and the places we may worship (whether it is a Moslem temple or a Christian Church) are what men have created for themselves in order to help them better understand this one God and to get closer to understanding this entity. No single faith people have created will ever represent the ultimate true faith or religion of God. This is something we must work together and approach. And the only way this can be done is by combining all the faiths into one, showing what is in common in all the knowledge, and so make it easier for everyone to see the same God.

Any battle over people's faith is a waste of time because all you are doing is fighting over the one and same God. Having enemies in such a war is like fighting yours brothers. There is no such thing as an enemy under the one true God we should be promoting. Therefore, the only reason for having these battles over so-called faiths in a God are based on non-religious reasons. In fact, leaders often hide their secret agenda behind the veil of religion. Usually this agenda is merely for materialistic gains in terms of acquiring wealth or territory, or love for another person, or a lack of understanding of God by showing a hatred to another person without really truly understanding the principle of love. What leaders often forget is that bringing religion into wars is not the true religion of God. The one and true God never teaches us to fight battles against other living creatures. The true religion has no place in any war. Instead it promotes the principle of love, even to our greatest enemies.

So everytime we hear of a battle of people's faith, it is not a battle of God or which God is better than another God, but rather the narrow-minded and earthly beliefs of those leaders who feel it is necessary to fight these wars just to prove they are more right, or they need to acquire something of importance to them (probably of a survival-based nature).

A true religion never creates wars. It is men who use it as an excuse to have wars, especially if it means encouraging people of the same faith (in terms of the way they pray, the names they use for God) to come together to fight a common cause (i.e. based on their faith) thinking that perhaps their faith is in jeopardy or they simply need to save their "brothers" who believe in the same things. But we all believe in the same God no matter who approaches the issue. Whether they are people on "our side" or people on the "other side", the belief in a God is the same God we are all striving to get closer to.

to YEARS AGO

The grand 300-year solar cycle lasting up 50 years (as opposed to the standard 11-year cycle) reached the Sun's lowest output of heat and light between 1650 and 1700, leading to particularly long-lasting and severe winters in England and Europe. The coldest was in 1683 when the river Thames froze.

NOTE: Europe and England can experience colder winters than usual during periods of global warming. This is because as the ice melts in the Arctic ocean, the winds from the Arctic do not come down to stop the flow of cold winds from Siberia moving in from the East. Then if on the odd occasion the warm ocean currents from the Caribbean reaching Europe stops flowing, the cold weather in Europe will be much more severe. On the other hand, during the summer times, temperatures under a global warming environment can rise quickly. Snow and ice across Europe and England will melt and create massive floods in low-lying areas and along major European rivers. The summer will also bring more rain followed by intense and very hot days. For other parts of the world, global warming will see continents experience severe droughts. If the droughts don't occur, it is only because the warm ocean currents are able to reach the coasts for extra rainfall. But once the ice in Antarctica and Arctic regions fully melt, these ocean currents will stop flowing. Weather will be more constant of an extreme and mostly drier nature over land.

YEARS AGO

The Industrial Revolution commences in Europe (led by England in 1780) around the late 18th century.

According to the United Nations InterGovernmental Report on Climate Change, global warming increased the moment when human's began burning wood and coal for energy, but quickly accelerated as the demand for wood, oil and coal by businesses in the industrial age increased. As business professionals and their workers got paid, the population naturally increased thereby placing further demands for businesses to expand and produce more items and services for the people.

The high demand for energy is a combination of inefficient products needing large amounts of energy to run, the size of the products needed to be produced, and the number of people demanding those products. Making the products expensive may have reduced the demand and restricted its use to the rich members of society. But as the scale of economies reduced the price, more and more people were able to afford the products. Then the energy demands would have to increase. Even when new energy-efficient products are produced, the shear size of the growing population will see to it that the energy savings are lost.

This is the problem with businesses. There is no such thing as a perfectly recyclable product. Well, at least not on the minds of most business people. Businesses do not pay the true cost from cradle to grave of what is needed to produce something.

Another thing that also went out the window at this time was the idea of working only so much as needed to survive. Rather than "work to live", the motto for a growing number of business people and the expectations of their employees became closer to "live to work" as individuals realised materialism was the key to building untold wealth and business people could become rich by selling as many products as possible to customers. Workers in the early days would be forced to work longer hours in poor conditions and age was no limit to who could work for these business people. It was a time when the principle of love was not high on the agenda for a number of business people (except for their own families, friends and like-minded business people).

Not surprisingly, we see many of these early businesses run by males. And their strong L-brain skills helped to improve the efficiency and complexity of various products in an attempt to meet demands as well as provide unique selling points to the products for the more discerning buyers.

As humans applied more L-brain skills of the Western European world to the rest of the world, the arrival of the first Europeans to Australia saw the introduction of many traditional "non-recycling" ways of farming the land, hunting for animals, and gathering other resources as needed not only to survive but also to become famous, powerful and rich. For example, the new settlers effectively stopped "patchy" burning by Aborigines. Eventually the fuel loads on the ground built-up and the appearance of massive broad-scale and intense fires have become the norm in modern Australian life.

As for the hunting techniques employed by white settlers in Australia, this has effectively wiped out 20 mammal species weighing between 35 and 5,500 grams in size. All we have remaining are a few small animals and only a very few large potentially "high breeding" mammals like kangaroos and emus to survive on the remaining tough, more fire-resistant vegetation of the Australian continent. As a result, the Australian continent combined with increasing carbon dioxide emissions from the growing industrialised world would see the land dry up significantly.

By the time the 21st century would come around, the pressing issue on many Australians would be where to find enough fresh water and how to allocate the remaining resource in an efficient way to maintain their way of life while maintaining the current economic principles.

Sure humans may enjoy the occasional and rare climatic conditions known as the "El Nina" to bring back some of the rains and give a false sense of security to the Australian people as they say "She'll be right, mate!". But unfortunately it is all too short lived. Australia is just one of those countries where it will experience longer spells of more intense and extreme droughts conditions under global warming.

Perhaps the Australian people should concentrate more on rebuilding the environment, re-establishing the great inland sea, and focus more on developing fully recyclable products and services as the key to solving all the water issues. Or will profit drive the ambitions of many Australians in the 21st century towards self-destruction?

YEARS AGO

The possibility that something alien could be travelling around in the skies of Earth inside glowing symmetrical flying objects surrounded by a cloud on occasions especially during the time of Moses may have returned. Are we encountering another similar scenario?

All we know so far is that humans have began to develop primitive balloons and airship technologies in the late 19th century to help lift people off the ground. Soon sightings of glowing disks started to emerge and get reported in some newspapers (around 1890s). These objects would reappear during World War II as foo-fighters only to move away and reappear again in northern Europe where they would act like rockets coming down from the sky and occasionally more close up views of unusual-shaped objects. They would disappear and suddenly make their presence known in the lower south-western corner of the United States where a lot of the testing of new aircraft, the first atomic bomb, and other military and scientific activities would take place.

Once World War II ended, sightings of unusual symmetrical flying objects proliferated in the USA and certain other developed nations in far more detail than ever before. The most logical and rational explanations by scientists are based on what we are already familiar with, which is mainly either secret US military experiments or natural phenomena. And if the observations are a little too unusual, why not categorize them as hallucinations or hoaxes?. Much easier to solve the problem using these rational explanations while the more unusual and close-range UFOs have no logical solution to most scientists.

Whatever some of the more unusual close-range UFOs were meant to be according to some civilian witnesses who reported them to the authorities, the rapid technological developments in the US would certainly become a prime focus for a series of intense UFO waves between 1947 and 1964, including a remarkable event in New Mexico of something symmetrical in shape flying in the air and dropping pieces of a super-tough shape-memory titanium-based alloy (of a purity that could not be manufactured to any reasonable quantity in 1947 and 1948 by anyone on Earth) from its outer hull, and eventually crashing in New Mexico together with unusually small and very thin bodies and large heads on the night of 2-3 July 1947. Since the event occurred, the U.S. Air Force and Army have done everything they could to cover it up to this day. The efforts would continue to a complete denial of the existence of UFOs or to make sure they would have a natural or man-made explanation. Never the possibility of something else to advance science and reveal a new electromagnetic technology. And not even considering how likely extraterrestrial life could have arrived here despite more and more scientists today feeling confident that advanced alien life should exist in the universe after examination of nearby stars with our telescopes and advancements in our scientific understanding of the universe. Yet despite such efforts, more and more cracks in the cover up would emerge as the UFO observations get more closely analysed and some scientists discover important discrepancies in the official explanation given by the USAF (the people responsible for allegedly recovering and analysing the original crashed disk materials and bodies).

YEARS AGO

On 30 June 1908, an object was seen hurtling from space at approximately 7.15am. The object entered the Earth's atmosphere and turned into a bluish-white ball of fire as it raced across the summer sky, leaving behind it a trail of multicoloured smoke. Soon afterwards, at 7.17am (Siberian time), it exploded at an altitude of 16 kilometres above the ground with a blinding flash of light and releasing the energy of a thousand Hiroshima atomic bombs in a desolate region near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River, in remote central Siberia.

As a result of the massive explosion, over 3000 square kilometres of pine forests ignited and continued burning for days, ferocious winds rattled doors and windows of people's homes and 600 kilometres from the epicentre, and tremors were recorded at Irkutsk's seismographic centre nearly 900 kilometres to the south. The explosion was of such tremendous proportions that almost all trees within a radius of 64 kilometres around the blast site (approximately 80 million trees) were flattened outwards like match sticks.

The accompanying thunderclaps could be heard up to a distance of 80 kilometres. Dirt and burnt debris was sucked-up and thrown 20 kilometres above the Tunguska region to fall as a shower of 'black rain' within 24 hours. Massive glowing silvery clouds suddenly appeared over northern Europe and Siberia, which became so bright during the next few nights that in some places it was possible to read a book at midnight without the aid of artificial lights. When Russian scientists finally investigated this remote and mostly uninhabited area notably Leonard Kulik, a mineralogist nearly 20 years later, no crater or meteor rock was found.

Further discussions with witnesses near the scene of the explosion reported a blinding flash, expanding shock waves, black rain of debris, and an apparently mushroom-shaped cloud formed immediately after the blast. This made some scientists think that perhaps it was a nuclear explosion of some sort. However measurements of radioactivity in the Tunguska soil using sensitive equipment were performed some fifty years after the incident. Scientists found little signs of radiation. The only that could be found was radioactive caesium-137 traced in much higher quantities than normal in the inner rings of living trees that would coincide with the 1908 explosion. Consequently, some people have proposed that a nuclear-powered spaceship went out of control and crashed in this sparsely-populated area of swamps and forests.

Today scientists have opted for a natural explanation: that an icy comet fragment (or possibly a small asteroid covered with ice) previously lost in the glare of the Sun weighing between 100,000 to more than a million tons, and measuring up to 70 metres across, collided with the Earth at a speed of perhaps 100,000 kilometres per hour, leaving no trace of itself after impact. Or if it was a rocky asteroid, the size would be about 10 metres across.

Whatever it was, scientists are confident it was of natural causes.

to YEARS AGO

Conflict between nations in Europe culminated with the advent of World War I from 1914 to 1918. Over a million soldiers from up to a dozen countries were sent to their deaths by their unimaginative, narrow-minded, and highly profit-motivated and power-driven male leaders to fight a war that could have been avoided in the first place if the knowledge from certain wise men in the past were heeded. If only people learned to share their resources and allowed economic development and trade among all nations while be accepting of all differences in our beliefs, ideologies etc.

People would naively describe World War I as "the war to end all wars". We now know this is untrue. As if we have not learned anything about setting a brighter future for generations to come in all nations, World War II began in the 1930s among essentially the same nations (e.g. Germany, France, the UK, Australia and Russia) with assistance from the United States at a late stage (the attack on Pearl Harbour in Hawaii by the Japanese got the Americans involved) over what was believed to be economic hardship placed on Germany by European nations after the previous world war and how a German leader emerged with delusional ideas of becoming the greatest nation on earth through an invasion of other nations (or a case of cornering a lion with no where else to go except to fight against the oppression).

Again this is a continuing saga of certain male leaders thinking it is more important to become the most powerful and richest people on earth. And at what cost to achieve this stupid aim?

YEARS AGO

Another man emerges into the world with, yet again, the same realisation as some other broader-thinking male leaders in the past of how important the principle of love is in solving world problems and why we should focus more on the spiritual adventure aspect of our lives rather than our constant obsession with the materialistic universe and using it to be rich and powerful. He was born in India. And over many years of personal experience and in watching his own people become repressed and controlled under British rule in India, not to mention the considerable time he had to think about the issues of the day, he would develop the necessary personal moral behaviours and discipline based on the principle of love which he believed would help his people to solve their problems at the time.

His name would be Mahatma Ghandi. A quietly-spokened eccentric character with a unique way of dealing with the repressive and profit-focused British authorities in his time. Of interest in this regard is his propensity to make things very expensive, socially embarrassing, and difficult for the British elites to handle the shear numbers of Ghandi supporters as well as the man himself even when he was sent to prison. He was also media savvy to the point of showing the worse side of the British authorities during a time when it seemed the British empire was more focussed on protecting its acquired wealth, those British citizens in a position of power in India, and trying to create the perception that everything is fine and under control wherever the empire existed. Yet the reality has no where near what the authorities had hoped, at least in the country of India.

For some people, in particular those in Britain, there was this view that the Earth contained a seemingly infinite amount of materials and how the power of economics as a means of getting rich just to improve living standards and extend lifespans had allured many to its glory. And for a while it looked as though it would continue to march on unimpeded as if there is no tomorrow no matter what could be happening to the environment and to other people. The power of love was not going to stop this kind of thinking. it would take World War II to nearly bankrupt the British Government to eventually force the authorities to let go of India and allow this nation to become independent and so fulfilling a lifelong dream Ghandi had for his homeland.

But then came the religious tensions between muslim and Hindu people in India. The separation of old India into a new India and Pakistan (the new and secure home for muslim people) was not to Ghandi'a liking. He continued to fight for equality, this time among the muslims living in India. Unfortunately, this ended up being too much for one Indian man who felt strongly against the muslims, and it was enough to see Ghandi get assassinated by this angry man.

People still have not learned the principle of love.

When will we finally learn?

YEARS AGO

Something interesting occurred in the deserts of New Mexico, USA, on the night of 2-3 July 1947 which would forever change the attitude of the U.S. military toward UFOs just after World War II.

According to witnesses at the time of the incident, a strange symmetrical glowing object allegedly flew over the city of Roswell in the late evening of 2 July 1947. Apparently it was headed in the direction of a large thunderstorm that was sweeping over New Mexico.

A couple of hours later, an odd explosion was heard by a rancher and his family in the midst of numerous lightning strikes over one particular area of the desert. It looked as though something was attracting those lightning strikes before it all suddenly died down immediately after the explosion.

As can be gleaned from the testimonial evidence and subsequent unusual wreckage discovered in roughly the place where the explosion took place, it would appear that just prior to the explosion the object had changed course and was accelerating away to avoid the thunderstorm in a west to north-westerly direction. Unfortunately, whoever or whatever flew the object had made the wrong decision to increase power causing one of the lightning bolts to hit the outer surface of the object (probably closer to the back end). Yet the object remained in the air despite sustaining significant damage as it flew at high speeds according to an expert military airmen sent to investigate the debris field and the distinctive pattern left behind by the materials on the ground. Numerous highly tough, high-temperature resistant, and extremely lightweight materials were stressed beyond normal limits, resulting in a shattering and tearing apart of the materials into a great quantity of smaller pieces. The most abundant of the pieces came from the outer hull (where the most damage occurred) made of a dark grey metal foil, followed by a breach of the interior symmetrical metal compartment for protecting instruments and possibly people inside. A thin plastic sheet acting as an insulator between the compartment and outer hull as well as some structural plastic beams to give this artificial object extra strength and rigidity were broken and torn apart. The shattered materials were blown out by the internal pressure of the cabin and fell to the ground in a fan-shaped pattern, with most of the materials concentrated at the narrowest end and spreading out to over 600 metres from ground zero of the explosion, showing the object remained in the air but continued to travel at a high rate of speed.

The next morning, the local rancher on the property went on horseback in the direction of where he and his family had heard the explosion earlier in the night. He was accompanied by a young boy from a neighbouring farm with excellent eyesight to help him find his sheep. Proving his worth yet again, the boy found his sheep in the distance. Both could observe how the sheep were avoiding a particular area just below an escarpment. All the sheep appeared to be fine. But when he looked in the area the animals were avoiding, what he found were materials that excited him to no end. He got off his horse and walked down an incline to pick up a number of the nearest pieces. He noted the toughness and extremely lightweight nature of all the materials. The first piece he found was a newspaper-thin metal foil. He tried to bend it. It was flexible to a certain extent, but when he let it go, the metal behaved in a way that he could not forget because nothing in his experience of seeing a similar foil in his part of the world at the time and before finding the materials would behave in the way he had observed in this foil he was touching. Today, we understand this foil to be a shape-memory alloy capable of returning to its original shape with application of heat or electricity.

Apart from the shape-memory metal foil (the most abundant material), the rancher picked up an unbreakable plastic parchment sheet that he could not burn with his cigarette lighter, and a number of semi-flexible and unburnable plastic beams with strange symbols on them. Again these beams showed the same unbreakable quality that would astound even his own experiences of man-made materials, and yet it was clear to him that something had stressed these unusually tough and unimaginably lightweight beams to beyond normal tolerances. Did the lightning strikes somehow played a part in causing all this damage? The rancher was not entirely sure, However, the thing that did get him excited the most was the plastic sheet pieces. Not being able to burn and break them for something so lightweight and extremely thin was nothing he had ever seen. Soon his curiosity got to the better of him, as he went about talking to people to find out what this material was and what kind of object had flew over his property. Eventually he was told to see the USAF in the city of Roswell as the people there were more likely to know what he had found.

Even when armed with the materials to show the city sheriff and later an experienced military airmen from the Roswell AAF who came to inspect the materials, everyone remained baffled by what kind of object had lost these pieces. For the military airman, he was particularly disturbed by the materials. Despite his complete knowledge of every conceivable and known man-made flying object and the type of materials used to construct them, he could not find an explanation for what flew over the rancher's property. Not even the materials themselves looked familiar. Of particular interest, and which intrigued the military official the most, was the shape-memory metal foil pieces. He returned to base with one of two boxes of the materials to show to his commanding officer. Not much help from his boss. He too was unable to find an explanation. So the boss decided he would send this military airmen with his experience in flying objects and a colleague to check on the crash location and carry as much of the material back to the base. Another USAF representative later visited the Sheriff's office to collect the second box brought in by the rancher.

Despite spending virtually a whole day looking at the materials scattered on the local rancher's property and collecting as much as possible and as far as they could walk, both military men remained baffled by this mysterious object. They carried as much as they could to the base in two vehicles and told the commanding officer more of the materials remained scattered. A group of military personnel was assembled to carefully comb the area of the debris site. Some of the men travelled further along the route allegedly taken by the flying object to a point approximately 30 kilometres from the initial explosion site. It is here where rumours have it that up to three small bodies were recovered, all of which appeared deceased. It was at this point that things began to get very secretive at the Roswell air base, as one reporter had noted. This reporter was held at the base against his will following his efforts to reach the site in the hope of watching the whole operation. The military quite flatly refused. But given the reaction and quiet discussions taking place among some of the military personnel, the reporter realised some bodies were found on the rancher's property.

As for the object itself, it is claimed a civil engineer and some archaeologists and students came upon the object and additional bodies some 200 kilometres to the west. All this happened presumably on the same morning that the rancher first discovered his unusual debris. Why this belief? The things that were linking the two, apart from the unusual bodies, is the dark-greyish metal skin found on the disk, and the civil engineer's mention of having seen the disk sometime in the summer of 1947. In terms of the metal foil making up the hull of the disc-shaped object, it was described as a "dirty stainless steel" material by the civil engineer. Dirty in the sense that it was like the metal had a thin film of black grease spread evenly over the surface to make the metal look darker, yet there was no grease to account for this darker colour. It looked clean and smooth on the outside. The colour would not bet too dissimilar to lead if not a bit more darker, but certainly not bright silvery in colour. This darker appearance of the metal on the disc-shaped object is highly reminiscent of the dark-grey foil found at the rancher's property with its distinctive shape-memory effect and extreme toughness. Is this the disk that dropped dark-grey metal foil and other debris over the rancher's property?

On closer examination of the object, it would appear that it had been ripped open, presumably on impact with the ground. Either that, or there had been an explosion, but it was hard to tell just from looking at the object. A number of bodies could be observed lying about outside of it as if the object had made a solid impact with the ground with the intent of killing all the crew members, or perhaps that was the way it turned out while the object flew at high speed into the ground. The interesting thing about the impact was how there was hardly any pieces of the object separated from the main body as if the materials were indeed very tough. Clearly something had opened up the object even if it had not lost pieces on hitting the ground. Everything about the object remained reasonably intact except for the obvious rip. At any rate, a few other people arrived claiming to be part of a university archaeological team. They too had noticed reflections off the metal object in the early morning sun at a distance. The main focus for everyone present at the crash site were on the bodies themselves. Just as the civil engineer did, they all looked intently at the bodies. Unusual looking in the sense that their heads were quite large compared to their short and unusually thin bodies. A one-piece dark-grey skin-tight suit was worn by all the dead crew members with no signs of different genders. Not seeing any breasts or any other feminine features in the crew member's faces, the civil engineer naturally assumed they were all "male". No buttons, zippers or other sharp-edged objects can be seen attached to the suits. There was something about the bodies that made them look too real to be dummies given the length of time spent by all the witnesses to observe the bodies (no one made an effort to look inside the object and test the materials). Were they hoping to find a survivor? Not likely after a short while of observing. It seemed the unusual appearance of the dead crew members and looking too realistic had made them wonder who or what these people were that had died.

Not long after, a group of U.S. Army military vehicles, including a truck, came up and started to cordon off the area. The civilian witnesses were told in no uncertain terms to forget what they saw and, as part of their patriotic duty, to never mention it to another soul. There was mention of the possibility of a secret military experiment, or so the civilians were told. However, to the witnesses who heard this claim, it was unlikely to be man-made and owned by the military after looking at the bodies in great detail. Without a thorough explanation of who or what the crew members were, they had no choice but to comply with the request from the military. They all had to leave the area with haste.

The archaeological team appeared to have kept quiet, and to a certain extent so did the civil engineer. However, the engineer was already an old man and knew he would not be around for much longer. To protect himself, he mentioned what he saw to his closest friends and his employer and asked them not to repeat it while he was alive. And he also did not give a precise date when it happened other than it occurred in the summer of 1947. Beyond that, the friends and employer could not give an explanation as to why he would mention his unusual experience other than it had to be real event given how serious he spoke of his discovery.

All the materials at the rancher's property were picked up by the USAF (including the three bodies) and US Army (the rest of the materials and remaining bodies).

While numerous witnesses who touched the original materials from the first crash site are certain they observed what appears to be a new shape-memory metal and other odd materials, we learn that the USAF suddenly had an interest in the manufacture of a new titanium-based (the principal element of sudden interest to the USAF after the event and the ones to request new technology to increase the purity of titanium alloys) dark-grey alloy known as nitinol immediately after 1947 (i.e., in 1948) with assistance from scientists at the Battelle Memorial Institute in Ohio. However, the shape-memory effect of this alloy was not officially detected until after 1958 by U.S. Navy metallurgists, and since then the world of shape-memory alloys began to interest scientists in other developed nations.

Together with the unusual bodies, it would appear that the US military had quickly realised the importance of the find and have decided (initially for fear of creating a mass panic) to keep it a big secret.

The reason for keeping the event secret can be understood by looking at our history and the way the public would react toward anything weird reaching the Earth. At first the US military generals, intelligence chiefs and US President Harry S. Truman were deciding behind closed doors whether or not to reveal the truth to the public according to several documents released under US FoI and discussions by UFO investigators among several retired top military brass willing to state what had happened on the record. But as soon as evidence of panic and social chaos emerged from events such as the CBS radio broadcast of Orson Welles War of the Worlds, Truman decided it was in the best interest of his people and the rest of the world to maintain the secrecy at all costs.

The original Roswell materials, including the shape-memory foil, were sent for analysis at Wright-Patterson AFB (the place where nitinol was first studied in pure form immediately after 1947 with assistance from Battelle scientists) before the evidence was eventually moved to another more secret location. Some scientific reports from the period may exist in secret vaults held at the air base, but it would take a major Congressional hearing and a courageous U.S. President to order the vaults open for public scrutiny and force the USAF to reveal the evidence they have kept of this momentous event.

Did any other president learn about the event?

There are indications that President Dwight D. Eisenhower had a personal glimpse of the evidence during a secret trip he made one night with assistance from the CIA and the military. But that was believed to be the last time any president would get the privilege to see what was recovered. Rumours have it that his reaction to the materials and bodies was enough for him to visit the church the next day (not something the president was noted of doing on a regular basis) and never spoke again of what he saw. Since then, the CIA has chosen to go at it alone by not telling other US presidents of the discovery.

John F. Kennedy, the U.S. President for the period between 1961 and 1963.

Only US President John F. Kennedy posed the biggest security risk for the CIA and the U.S. military (in particular, the USAF) with his official request in a memo he wrote to share all UFO secret intelligence files with the American space agency NASA, and ultimately with Russia as part of his effort to bring world peace. At the time, Kennedy was not only interested in seeing the first man on the Moon, but he also wanted to make realistic and achievable efforts for greater co-operation and peace with Russia when he asked in a formerly Top Secret memo dated 12 November 1963:

As I had discussed with you previously, I have initiated [unintelliigible] and have instructed James Webb to develop a program with the Soviet Union in joint space and lunar exploration. It would be very helpful if you would have the high threat cases reviewed with the purpose of identification of bona fide as opposed to classified CIA and USAF sources. It is important that we make a clear distinction between the knowns and unknowns in the event the Soviets try to mistake our extended cooperation as a cover for intelligence gathering of their defence and space programs.

When this date has been sorted out, I would like you to arrange a program of data sharing with NASA where Unknowns are a factor. This will help NASA mission directors in their defensive responsibilities.

I would like an interim report on the data review no later than February 1, 1964.

The memo came at a time when he succeeded in getting broad agreement in top level dialogue with the former Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev to work together on all future space and lunar projects and to release classified UFO files held by the CIA to NASA to help show to his Russian counterparts that UFOs were not examples of Cold War psychological warfare plans from his nation. Unfortunately, he never succeeded in his aim to release UFO information, let alone receive a response to his request. No UFO secrets would ever be shared despite skeptics and the USAF under Project Blue Book in the 1960s claiming UFOs are nothing more than ordinary natural and man-made phenomena, or so we are led to believe. The highly sensitive nature of UFOs to certain people in top echelons of the US government and military was made evident when at 12.31 p.m. on the hot, sunny afternoon of 22 November 1963, President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. Who assassinated the president has remained one of the most controversial in history as the man allegedly responsible for the shooting, Lee-Harvey Oswald, was very soon after killed by Jack Ruby, a night club owner with Mafia connections, before Oswald could ever reveal his knowledge to the public.

As history tells us, Mr Oswald was led vulnerably by two policemen to the county jail on Houston Street in Dealey Plaza through a crowd of 75 reporters and numerous policemen and civilians. Just when somebody shouted "Do you have anything to say in your defence?" and a good time for Oswald to admit if he did it, Mr Ruby suddenly pushed himself through the crowd, pointed a handgun at Mr Oswald and shot him. Mr Oswald later died in hospital.

Before Mr Oswald was led along his final walk through the crowd by the policemen, he did attempt to state briefly to reporters previously as he was escorted in the corridor of the Dallas Police Department that he denied killing the president (together with another man killed on the same day, a Dallas police officer named J. D. Tippit, on a local street nearly 45 minutes after the president was shot). He said:

"I don't know what dispatches you people have been given, but I emphatically deny these charges. I have NOT committed any acts of violence."

Yet somehow we have the mystery of how his fingerprint was found on the rifle located in the Texas School Book Depository on the sixth floor of the library building (now confirmed to be the place where definitely two bullets were fired on the President). Apparently someone had left what appears to be Mr Oswald's rifle for the police to find (rather conveniently) and it just so happens to have Mr Oswald's fingerprint on it. Everything would seem like an open and shut case. Mr Oswald must be lying. Up to three bullets (6) must have been fired from what appears to be his rifle (which he did own a very similar if not the same weapon). It looks as if Mr Oswald had been the one who pulled the trigger in an attempt to kill the president.

However, the situation got dramatically and unusually complicated following Mr Oswald's death, raising the spectre of an extraordinary conspiracy with strong links to other people being involved in the death of the president, and the considerable effort by these people to influence others in an attempt to make Mr Oswald appear to the world as the sole person responsible for killing the President as if a much bigger secret had to be maintained by those in the know. Somehow the president was seen as too dangerous to be allowed to live another day. And to make sure Mr Oswald would take the blame, things were done to hide crucial evidence and confuse the matter for those who witnessed the assassination. For a start, the autopsy report on the president was somehow lost (7), and what few poor quality photographs exist of Kennedy's head show only from behind. This essentially hides the all-important crucial evidence around the side and front end of the head needed to determine whether the bullet that killed the president was an exit or entrance wound (a distinct pattern is created by an entrance wound compared to an exit wound) and how likely it was that Mr Oswald could have fired the fatal shot from the sixth floor room. Indeed a lot of the controversy and debate (and subsequent conspiracy theories brought up by the public and added to later by the CIA) could have been cleared up with detailed access to the complete autopsy report and all photographs followed by a detailed analysis of ballistics on Mr Oswald's gun to resolve how feasible Mr Oswald was the shooter, and presumably the only one as we are led to believe. Today, the latest evidence is strongly supporting a different story. Namely more than one gunman was present on the day of the assassination, and with links going back to the CIA. And there is now a strong possibility that Mr Oswald had not been one of the shooters. Unfortunately, with Mr Oswald taken out by another gunman, it is impossible to listen to Mr Oswald's side of the story to determine his whereabouts, possible motives, and whether he was alone and had been present in the sixth floor room when the first bullets began firing on the president. This is what happens when people don't do the proper investigations to find out before affecting those who are claimed to be responsible for the shooting. The old "shoot first and ask questions later" is a common mentality of American men. And if there are secret agendas for why the shooting had to take place (and so far this is looking like the case), this just adds another layer of complication. No wonder this event is so messed up.

Firstly, we know that Mr Oswald did own a gun of the same type found in the sixth floor room. We learn that in March 1963, Mr Oswald used the alias "A. Hidell" to purchase by mail order a 6.5×52mm Carcano Model 91/38 infantry rifle with a telescopic sight. Yet examination of the advert revealed that gun experts considered Mr Oswald's choice to be slow and clumsy to use compared to other rifles that were available from the same advert  so why did Mr Oswald choose this rifle if the aim for him was to kill people? There were far better weapons he could have purchased at the time. At any rate, the rifle that was purchased fits remarkably well to what was found on the sixth floor of the library building. Or was it a coincidence? Not likely because the rifle found on the sixth floor just so happened to have his fingerprint. With this first vital piece of evidence, we can say with reasonable confidence that this is probably Mr Oswald's gun. However, what is not clear, and with no official testimony from any witnesses, is whether Mr Oswald was actually in the room when it all happened, let alone firing at the president as the authorities were quick to state as the probable scenario. If there is the slightest possibility he was in there doing the dirty deed (the gun Mr Oswald owned and the presence of his fingerprint would strongly suggest this), there is further evidence that Mr Oswald was not skillful at firing accurately with the rifle at the distance required to hit the president. And no expert gunman could fire 3 bullets in less than 19 seconds at the president using this gun allegedly owned by Mr Oswald as an Italian investigation using professional marksmen has discovered. Furthermore, there seems to be a strong possibility that he was not alone in the room (which would explain how it might be possible to hit the president if this other person was more of an expert in the use of the rifle compared to Oswald himself). Or, as the evidence is slowly emerging, it would appear that Mr Oswald was not on the sixth floor when it happened but someone else had access to Mr Oswald's gun (it was found to have gone missing from Mr Oswald's garage in his home on the day of the assassination) and this other person was more of a marksman to attempt this dreadful act on the president (but turned out he was not the guy who actually killed the president) and left Mr Oswald's gun in that room for the police to find and so frame Mr Oswald for the crime. Whether Mr Oswald was asked to fire his own rifle under duress by someone else, or he was at another location in the library building (8) and someone else did the firing, there is something strange about this case.

Indeed, the case gets even more complicated as soon as new evidence emerges to help question the likelihood of Mr Oswald being the man responsible for the shooting.

For example, according to the authorities, an additional fingerprint was found on a cardboard box in the room in a position next to the window where the rifle was fired out of it. At first the fingerprint seemed to match a man named Malcolm "Mac" Wallace (he had killed a man some years earlier for having an affair with his wife and his fingerprints were recorded and kept by the police). An experienced ex-Marines sniper and marksman. if anyone could have fired at the president at that distance from the sixth floor room, Mr Wallace would have had a much better chance than Mr Oswald. Yet investigators could find no good reason why Mr Wallace needed to be in the room despite some witnesses placing him in the building at the right time. Or was it someone else who looked very much like him? According to Joan Mellens, a closer examination of the fingerprint on the box has now suggested that it may not match Mr Wallace's police record. And an alibi was found claiming Mr Wallace had been at his home. Or did someone else look like him and had stayed at his home while Mr Wallace did the shooting? We cannot be absolutely sure.

One thing seems certain, it would require incredible luck for Mr Oswald to fire and hit the president at the distance required. And even then, the two bullets that managed to hit the president from the sixth floor would not cause the president's death.

Unfortunately, with Mr Oswald taken out by another presumably lone gunman with Mafia connections, it makes it incredibly hard to find out what really happened. And his death and subsequent blaming by the authorities on this one man seems too convenient. It is certainly not helped by the fact that Mr Oswald had an association with Russia (i.e., a Russian citizen for two years with an interest in communism), and he wasn't exactly fitting into American life given his diverse views. Yet his background and beliefs should not be held against him. This is looking more like someone else had wanted this event to happen, and Mr Oswald would be used as the scapegoat for whatever reason.

Of greatest concern in this whole matter is the third bullet  the one that killed the president. The nature of this bullet is intriguing. It is certainly not of the type fired from the rifle in the Book Depository room on the sixth floor of the library building. Furthermore, Italian weapons experts using the rifle found in the Depository Book room (the same type also owned by Mr Oswald for up to 7 months prior to the assassination) was unable to fire, reload, aim with reasonable accuracy, and re-fire again in under 19 seconds to account for all the bullets fired at the president as well as the problem of waiting for the president to appear from behind a large tree for a reasonably clear shot. And even then, it would require an expert marksmen to fire at that distance. Mr Oswald, on the other hand, was a mediocre gunman (9).

All this is leading us to suspect that a second weapon was used in the shooting.

Just to add to the strange nature of this event, not even the couple of witnesses who allegedly saw two men come up to policemen Tippet and shot him dead could confirm that Mr Oswald was present and had been one of the men involved. Yet a person of similar body build was linked to Mr Oswald and the authorities have took this to mean that it must have been Mr Oswald. Who else could it be? At the time this second shooting took place, Mr Oswald claimed he had heard about it on the radio. Prior to this, his boss at the library where he began his first day at work told staff to leave early because of the shooting incident with the president. Mr Oswald decided to keep away from the commotion on the streets and watch a movie. But he was picked up by police after a tip-off from a member of the public. Since then, every attempt by the authorities was made to pin all the shootings on this one man.

Even the FBI-backed Warren Commission went to extraordinary lengths to establish that all the bullets came from this one rifle and Mr Oswald had to be the man responsible for the policeman's death given how similar he looked to witnesses testimony (but no one could confirm it was definitely him). Noting Mr Oswald's fingerprint was on the gun used to fire on the president, for some reason, this made the case rather damning against Mr Oswald unless he could explain how his fingerprint got onto the rifle and whether he had brought the gun into the library. Not unless he could speak from the grave in his own words, it would appear that this is one aspect we will never quite know the truth. Yet it is amazing that the Commission went to considerable efforts to avoid implicating anyone else. It had to be this one man and no one else. Together with knowledge that Mr Oswald did own a similar (if not the same) rifle, and was used in the past in a failed attempt to kill Major-General Walker at close range outside his home (but missed), the simplest solution was to point the finger at Mr Oswald as the only person who could have killed the president. End of story.

Again it just seems too convenient.

Or would it be closer to the truth to say that President Kennedy was killed by someone else and everything was made to look like it was Mr Oswald as the sole shooter, only to be later taken out by the CIA rather conveniently with the help of the Mafia to avoid sensitive UFO information getting through to the public? Or should we accept the view that it was the crazy antics of a lone gunman as the CIA and FBI-backed Warren Commission on the assassination in September 1964 wanted to conclude?

For more than 70 years, serious questions remained unanswered while the majority of the American people expressed considerable skepticism of the "one gunman" theory. For example, an unidentified man in the crowd was observed opening up the only umbrella on a sunny, hot day and holding it high above his head just before the assassination began and then closing it after the shooting, how the bullets hitting the President seem to come from two different directions (there was a puff of smoke from behind a fence on top of a knoll more in front of the president's car which confused some witnesses into thinking someone was firing on the president from this direction; or was it more the fact that someone was using cigarettes to create smoke to help add to the confusion for the public?), and the missing autopsy report, not to mention what happened to the photographs and actual brain samples from the President's head all added to the conspiracy theory that Mr Oswald was not the lone gunman we were all led to believe. Someone else appeared to have been involved in the killing of the president. (10)

And now a photograph has been released showing Mr Oswald was almost certainly outside the library watching the president go by in his car and walked back into the library just at the time someone on the sixth floor began to fire on the president. If this is true, then there wasn't any time for him to get to the sixth floor, grab his gun, try to aim, and fire on the president. As it turned out, he went back to the first floor to continue with his work, oblivious to what was going on outside. And ever since then, people have gone to a remarkable effort to blame Mr Oswald for the president's death.

It is amazing.

So who really killed the president? Could it be the CIA?

All we know is that the CIA has used the Mafia in the past to do its dirty work. For example, the CIA hired the Mafia in a failed attempt to kill Cuban leader Fidel Castro during the Bay of Pigs fiascoe. So any involvement by the Mafia in stopping Mr Oswald from revealing evidence to the media or the independent commission if paid enough money or other rewards could be easily linked back to the CIA.

And certainly the CIA would have the motive to take out Kennedy after his revealing memo on UFOs.

Perhaps we may never know.

Whatever really happened, we do know there is still a considerable effort to this day by the top echelons of the US spy agencies and the military community (in particular the US Air Force) o maintain UFO secrecy from the public at all costs. Initially the excuse for doing this was to avoid public panic. Today, it is more to do with maintaining power and staying rich under the current economic system so long as other people are made to believe all UFOs are IFOs or to at least get people to be preoccupied in areas that would force people to maintain the current economic system and hence be kept in the dark about the true UFO situation. As for American Christians wondering about all of this, the CIA is willing to paint a demonic picture of UFOs to help convince these simple-minded religious folks to believe UFOs are not worthy of discussion.

For example, Charles Upton, a retired high ranking military attaché with CIA connections, wrote an article in the New York Times in April 2011 talking about the similarities of UFOs and the demons described in religious folklore. As Upton said:

) It is a psychic phenomenon that profoundly alters the consciousness of those exposed to it;

) It is apparently surrounded by deception activities which mimic it, produced by human groups. We tend to consider these elements as mutually exclusive, but they’re not; all three are explainable by demonic activity and invocation.

Demons are subtle beings who can temporarily materialize themselves and various objects in this world, but who cannot remain on our material plane for very long.

And the deception activities of human groups, besides being attempts to piggyback on a phenomenon that the deceivers didn’t originate and can’t control, may be designed not simply to imitate the “aliens” to influence mass belief, but to actually invoke them.

This suggests the possibility that elements of the intelligence community and various arcane technologists are involved in Satanism." (Upton, Charles. "The UFO Phenomenon and Demonic Activity": New York Times. April 2011, p.1. What is shown here is an abridgement of this article that Upton published on 29 December 2011 titled "UFOs, Mass Mind-Control, and the Awliya al-Shaytan". Full details of his "UFO-Satanic connection" theory can be found in his book Cracks in the Great Wall: UFOs and Traditional Metaphysics published in 2005.)

To give further support to his theory, Upton obtains support from Father Seraphim Rose. As he wrote:

"Father Seraphim Rose, in Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future, citing many of the Eastern Orthodox saints and the Greek Fathers, draws many exact parallels between the UFO phenomenon and the experiences of the early Christian saints with the demonic powers.

I believe that the powers that be are playing a game of both debunking the reality of UFOs and covertly planting evidence of their reality as a method of mass mind-control, using a technique I call “subliminal contradiction."

Yet little do ordinary religious folks know, the CIA are experts in psychological warfare techniques if it means getting people to support a preferred position. Furthermore, the common observation that UFOs can appear and disappear (and in some cases in a cyclic manner) can be explained as the result of an intense oscillating electromagnetic field, which under Einstein's Unified Field Theory, generates a strong gravitational field. This in turn is what helps light to bend, thereby allowing an observer to see what is behind the object. Definitely no need to link the invisibility observation to demonic creatures from another dimension. Science has the power to explain the same observation.

Still, the CIA is willing to take the chance that the public will never know the truth. The electromagnetic concepts behind UFOs are presumably too hard to figure out for ordinary citizens, and scientists are made to believe there is nothing to study in UFOs.

Combine this with the Condon UFO Report of 1969, done in a manner that was not properly balanced and certainly not aimed at focusing on the electromagnetic side-effects displayed by genuine symmetrical-shaped UFOs (the person who headed the study, Dr Edward Condon, was a nuclear physicist, not an electromagnetic expert with knowledge of advanced electromagnetic concepts, such as the Abraham-Lorentz formula and Einstein's Unified Field Theory linking the gravitational field with the electromagnetic field), and the CIA must feel overly confident in having convinced the scientific community of the lack of possible advancement to science from the study of UFOs. UFIOs mst be hogwash, so let's keep it that way. So while the scientists remain ignorant of the reality and not willing to challenge the status quo on this matter, it seems like just about everyone is in the palm of the CIA's hands right now.

Yet despite the tough exterior and efforts to hide the UFO evidence, as well as methods of deceiving the public on the UFO phenomenon through carefully crafted newspaper articles and false UFO documents released by individuals currently still working for, or have retired from, the government and military, a few cracks in the US policy of extreme UFO secrecy would emerge. For example, we find evidence in the old metallurgical journals of how the US Air Force was involved in nitinol research between 1948-49 and showed interest in other titanium-based shape memory alloys (with properties corresponding remarkably well to observations of the shape memory metal foil seen by witnesses near Roswell in July 1947). We see this interest from the military scientists at the Battelle Memorial Institute in Ohio tasked with analyzing the Roswell materials, which raises serious questions as to how the military created the alloy in 1947 at a time when the technology for making pure titanium in adequate quantities to reveal this property was not available to help explain the witnesses' observations. Another serious crack would occur after 1975 when citizens against UFO secrecy successfully forced the US government to release a few thousand pages of UFO information from the CIA and other clandestine agencies (as well as the U.S. military) under the US Freedom of Information Act (FoIA). At first the existence of these documents were denied, and later it was claimed the documents would have serious impact on national security. While many thousands of pages still remain hidden, what he do have is very interesting. There was considerable interest in UFOs by certain people in the military and the CIA among other clandestine agencies since 1947. And some of those documents would mention at least one crashed disk in New Mexico. To this day, the U.S. government has continued to maintain its national security argument for all remaining hidden UFO documents. And if that is not enough, in 2017 the CIA has gone one step further by claiming that some UFOs are probably top-secret military IFOs in an attempt to convince people why the UFO secrecy is continuing.

This is the same as what happened in the 1970s. When the first batch of UFO documents were released to the public through FoIA in 1976, a government decision was made to sanction the records of Project Blue Book (which closed down in 1969) for public scrutiny in the hope that the public will be convinced that UFOs are IFOs. Even if that military study was seriously skewed to support a natural or man-made explanation after the retirement of Captain Edward J. Ruppelt (the man who started the project and wanted a more balanced investigation of which he did find more and more unusual electromagnetic cases emerging from the UFO reports) to avoid any mention of genuine electromagnetic UFO cases and instead focus on finding quick natural or man-made explanations for all UFOs, the aim was clear. The public had to be convinced that there had to be nothing unusual in the UFO reports. If that was not enough, certain people in the government and military would secretly release anonymous and somewhat dubious US UFO government documents such as the Majestic 12 document, photographs and films of dead aliens, and fake employees from Area 51 to help keep UFO investigators and researchers busy and away from critical areas of research while ensuring the scientific community would never be open-minded enough to study the subject when they see this going on.

In the meantime, certain well-paid individuals in the US either directly involved in the big secret or others who don't know about the secret but are willing to do as they were told for enough money would infiltrate key positions of power in the US military, secret intelligence and a few civilian organisations (and politically through the US Administration in more recent times). These individuals would wield enormous power on the local, national and international scene by promoting many strong L-brain (i.e. R-wing) ideas needed to keep the big secret going for as long as is possible and keep others away from the subject.

Among the attempts to stop the public and the rest of the world from learning the great truth include:

debunking UFOs at every turn;

getting the skeptical scientific community to support the idea that there is nothing to be advanced from the study of UFOs;

paying government scientists in the 1950s to support a way of life that is unhealthy (e.g. mainly to eat more carbohydrates to supposedly reduce fat and make us more healthy, when in fact there is no real scientific basis to support this idea and could well be making us more fatter and unhealthier), making people as lazy and uneducated as possible and/or too busy making money and therefore not curious enough to learn new ideas, while influencing as many people to participate in mainstream "uncreative" L-brain jobs considered generally "safe" in the eyes of the US military (e.g. join the Army or support the current economy). (11)

During this creative public period when people considered the possibility of ETs existing somewhere in the universe (and with new scientific efforts to find the evidence through SETI), these R-wing ideas would get accelerated after 1980 with the help of the US government and with subtle influence from the US military and intelligence organisations. This was also the time when further information about the Roswell incident emerged in Charles Berlitz and William Moore's book, The Roswell Incident. The quotes from remaining military and civilian witnesses who saw the original Roswell materials revealed a remarkably powerful and tough shape-memory alloy made with titanium at a time when the metal's purity needed to reveal this property was not there to produce it. More of a reason to keep people preoccupied yet again, this time on the war on terrorism (and in 2018 the potential for a second Cold War with Russia, and eventually China and North Korea). All simple approaches to help stop the truth from coming out.

The rest of the world, on seeing this at a superficial level (with focus on the preferred views from the U.S. government), would merely follow the US lead in order to maintain their place and relevance on the world stage, enjoy the benefits of maintaining the economic system in its present state, and so be seen as though they are "part of the global team" (i.e. non-terrorists).

We are certainly not a creative bunch today to see through the US military and intelligence aims.

This will certainly have to change later in the 21st century.

Update25 October 2017

During a time when the U.S. President Donald Trump was under investigations for alleged contacts with Russian leader Vladimir Putin and links to Russian interference in the last U.S. elections, the president decided in the interest of openness and showing he has nothing to hide to order the CIA to release files it has kept in relation to the assassination of former president John F. Kennedy. Either that or whatever the CIA already has on Trump would be kept secret if Trump does the right thing of "not rocking the boat". Initially Trump wanted to release all the files. However, someone with close connections to the CIA has convinced Trump to be somewhat circumspect about what can be released. It looks like certain CIA files on the event remain too sensitive for the public to know about.

So, on Friday 27 October 2017, the CIA gathered 3,000 files and sent them for "release", of which only 2,800 were actually handed over. As a further measure of the sensitivity of the matter to the CIA, heavy redaction of the information can be seen. The decision to be heavy handed with with censorship texter will only fuel the public controversy surrounding Kennedy's death.

Examination of the files generally try to paint Lee-Harvey Oswald as the prime suspect, together with various reasons why it may have happened. For example, we see in some documents a link between the Soviets and Oswald. In one CIA memo, we learn a KGB defector was aware of this link. It was clear Oswald had lived in Russia a decade earlier, and just 6 days before Kennedy's assassination he visited the Cuban and Soviet embassies in Mexico City. The KGB defector further added that the Soviet spies were unaware of Oswald and what he was up to. Yet Mr Oswald's association to Russia was enough to make the defector think he may have been "an agent of the KGB" or at the very least cause significant problems for the Kremlin if the U.S. decided the assassination came from Russia and retaliated by hitting targets in Russia (and potentially start a new world war).

And in another document we learn that the Russians thought Oswald was a "neurotic maniac" to the point where they did not want to get involved with him.

However, following the event that took place with the death of John F. Kennedy, the Russians learned about Oswald and became more concerned about the U.S. starting a third world war against the communist country should the link between Oswald and Russia be made. Just like the Cuban missile crisis where the Russians stepped back from the brink of nuclear war, Russian officials were afraid of the likely repercussions should this information come out. Interestingly, certain information did come out and was kept by the CIA but never released even when the Warren Commission into Kennedy's death was taking place. Apparently the documents were being gathered secretly and stored for a long time to probably help protect the CIA at some point in the future should enough evidence be found to implicate the agency in the assassination.

At any rate, thanks to this Russian connection, a whole new conspiracy theory has emerged to implicate Russia in some way and so keep the American public busy for many more years as they continue to wonder who really killed Kennedy.

As far as the reasons for the assassination are concerned, the documents indicate that there are many and varied. Strangely not one document ever tries to question the CIA in the matter, let alone anything to do with UFOs. Perhaps not surprising, Seriously, why would any document kept by the CIA try to implicate the CIA in Kennedy's death? It would not be in the interest of the CIA to do so. It is far better to give the perception that the CIA is the good guy trying to protect American citizens.

Interesting to see how UFOs are not recorded in the CIA files (well, certainly not in the documents currently released to the public). Quite a remarkable discovery in itself. Yet one would think that such a possibility would have been kept in the agency's long association with the event of 1963 given its efforts to retain every conceivable conspiracy theory of what might have happened and why. Well, one would think so assuming, of course, the CIA is in the business of being balanced in gathering all the conspiracy theories it has uncovered in relation to this extraordinary event. So why isn't UFOs mentioned at all? Not even a tiny smidgen in some corner of a released document?

Okay. So, was it really Lee-Harvey Oswald who killed Kennedy? The CIA, and now President Trump, would like to think so. Rather convenient for Trump given his own difficulties at the present time, and it would get the CIA off the hook too (and avoid Trump being the next target for the CIA if he exercises his powers beyond what is expected of him in order to maintain the status quo). Unfortunately, too many flaws exist in the Lee-Harvey Oswald "one man" theory. Sure, he was present at the time of Kennedy's death. And a couple of bullets were fired from a rifle that appears to be his own (because of the fingerprint) and did reach the president (incredible accuracy, or just pot luck?), going through his neck and another through his body and eventually ended up lodged in the driver (known as the "magic bullet" theory). But these bullets were not enough to kill Kennedy. In fact, the bullet that passed through Kennedy's neck was not fatal as Kennedy spoke calmly to his wife and driver telling them he had been shot. He still had his faculties in check, and there was every chance he could survive it. Unfortunately, someone else did not want to see Kennedy survive. The most recent analysis conducted by a retired Australian police detective with experience in homicides has shown quite convincingly that Mr Oswald could not have been the guy who achieved the ultimate destructive outcome with the president. This is further reinforced by the latest ballistic information, from accurate 3D re-creation of the Dallas street and motorcade, and the scanty information from poor quality x-ray images of the president's skull. Further details can be watched in NOVA's documentary Cold Case JFK. Mr Oswald's position in the library building, if it was him who was shooting at the president, was not at the correct angle to kill the president based on the type of damage caused to the skull, and he already struggled to get the precision and accuracy needed with his rifle to aim for Kennedy's head in such a short window of opportunity and distance away from the moving target. If Mr Oswald somehow could have fired the fatal shot, it would be more of a "magic bullet" to reach the president in the angle at which it fatally entered the skull of the President. Because in this circumstance, the bullet had to turn in mid-air just behind the skull, maintain speed, enter the skull, and then, by some inexplicable reason, the bullet had to explode quite dramatically to cause the level of damage seen in the official video. Basically, we are talking about an impossibility. The bullet that ultimately killed Kennedy came from someone else and was of a special type designed to explode and destroy whole organs in the body as a means of ensuring instant death. In the case of Kennedy, much of his brain had been totally destroyed, and the explosion caused a significant amount of the skull over one side (that is, to his right side) to be blown out. Also the angle of this final fatal bullet came from a sufficiently different direction, too difficult to achieve from Mr Oswald's position. The work by the retired Australian ex-police detective and careful analysis of the scene and available evidence is now pointing quite clearly to one of the bodyguards in the vehicle behind Kennedy's car. Furthermore, it has been revealed that only one bodyguard had the high-powered weapon with the right bullets to do it. Why it was necessary for this bodyguard to carry this type of weapon is unclear, but everyone else in the secret service who were meant to be there to protect Kennedy were issued with standard weapons with bullets that would not cause the level of damage done to Kennedy (more designed to wound or create a clean kill and hence a simpler entry and exit wounds). However, without video evidence to show the bodyguard actually firing on the president (apart from the smell of gunpowder noted by some witnesses in the crowd nearest the vehicle where the bodyguard had been riding in) and with no one actually being able to see exactly who it was in the vehicle (as the other two bodyguards in the car on either side had stood up at the right time and covered for the guy with the special rifle), the confusion among the public of what happened and being more concerned about the president's well-being had effectively avoided the bodyguard from ever being singled out by anyone in the public as being responsible for Kennedy's death. And to make sure of it, one bodyguard in the car behind Kennedy's vehicle ran forward to assist the president and so ensured people were watching him and the president. This effectively directed the gaze of the public elsewhere (if they had not hit the ground and looked away in fear).

Former secret service agent Clint Hill

As the retired secret service agent Clint Hill said to NOVA:

"I was on the left running board of the follow up car immediately behind the presidential vehicle. All of a sudden I heard an explosive noise over my right shoulder, and I saw the president grab at his throat and I knew something was wrong. I jumped off the running board of the follow up car and ran towards the presidential vehicle. As I was running, they tell me there was another shot  I didn't hear it. Just as I was approaching the president's car, there was a third shot. It hit the president in the head, and then it exploded out to the right side of his head. Blood and brain matter and bone fragments sprayed out across the people in the car, across the trunk and myself, and Mrs Kennedy. Pulled myself up to the rear of the car and Mrs Kennedy came out on the trunk. She didn't even know I was there. She wasn't reaching for me. She was reaching for something that came off the president's head I grabbed her and put her in the back seat and I screamed to the driver to get us to the hospital."

Clint Hill is shown here in the vehicle behind President Kennedy's vehicle.

It made for a remarkably well-conceived and planned effort by someone or a group of individuals to kill President Kennedy.

Even without the remaining 300 files not yet released by President Trump (and perhaps never will), there is already enough indirect evidence to show with a reasonable degree of certainty who it was that fired the fatal shot despite how the CIA files try to paint Mr Oswald as the only man to have done it together with a myriad of possible reasons as to why he might have done it. With all the trouble keeping a list of possible reasons, why hasn't the CIA kept a document about this possibility (i.e., a bodyguard shooting at the president)? Again the CIA's files on the matter remains woefully incomplete, almost as if the CIA had wanted it that way. Instead the American public are made to think it had to be Mr Oswald. Yet, on the whole, the public are generally convinced it could not be Mr Oswald even though he does have some responsibility (assuming he did fire from the sixth floor of the library building). Indeed, this is not so much about how or who probably killed the president as there is enough tantalising clues on this matter to reveal the truth (the public are confident someone else is responsible). Rather, this is more a case of why.

In other words, why was President Kennedy killed? What was so important that he had to be taken out? What could be so sensitive that the president was doing at the time to warrant such extreme measures on the man? And did he really deserve it?

Today, we have further tantalising clues as to why it happened. It is all going back to that fateful memo recommending a release of UFO information. Knowing how sensitive this is to the CIA and the U.S. military, one can imagine how it is possible to plan this whole assassination event in an attempt to maintain UFO secrecy at all costs. But then that would imply UFOs are real and not as we are told by the USAF and the CIA of familiar IFOs, which would be astonishing if it is true.

In the meantime, without definitive proof (such as a confession from the bodyguard who fired the fatal shot  the man is still alive but chooses to keep quiet, which can only make it worse for him and the CIA in the long run), it remains yet another interesting conspiracy theory to keep the public wondering. Until the true reason is given (and so far the CIA is doing all it can to avoid any responsibility), this final part of the question will remain a mystery.

Or maybe the thing that is closest to the truth is the one that the CIA chooses not to say anything or mention in any of its documents released so far. If this is the reality, then it may not be too far fetched to imagine a scenario involving UFOs as the cause for this tragic death.

One thing is certain. Any attempts by future American presidents to ask about the UFO situation will probably not face the same fate as President Kennedy. It would be too obvious. Instead, the aim would be to deny the existence of UFOs and any possible links to alien life at all costs, even if scientific observations of the universe are telling us life can and should exist on other planets beyond our solar system. And if the technology is there to cover the immense distances, we should expect the technology to be used and other life to be here already, watching and learning about us and our planet.

As an example of the latest preferred approach to stopping the inquisitive minds of an American president to ask about the UFO question, Mr Gerald Ford expressed an interest in UFOs while he was the Republican House Minority Leader of Congress. He said in 1966:

"I strongly recommend that there be a committee investigation of the UFO phenomena. I think we owe it to the people to establish credibility regarding UFOs and to produce the greatest possible enlightenment on this subject."

His statement fell on deaf ears. When he did get into the White House and asked again, it suddenly became necessary for official U.S. authorities to show a flat out denial on any UFOs as possibly having any opportunity to advance science, let alone one that could represent something alien. Luckily for President Ford, he did not pursue it further. This preferred approach to denying UFOs at every step by those in the know is supported by UFO director of MUFON in New Jersey, Major George A. Filer III, when he wrote to Ford asking about his interest. Ford wrote back saying:

"During my public career while in Congress, as Vice President and as President he made various requests about UFOs. The official authorities always denied the UFO allegations. As a result I have no information that may be helpful to you."

It goes to show just how sensitive this whole UFO situation really is in the United States. Something has clearly got up the proverbial nose of certain people in the know and in a bad way to the point where they are not willing to divulge their knowledge even to this day. Indeed, they prefer not to see any form of questioning of the UFO evidence through a proper scientific inquiry (and something more balanced and open-minded than the Condon UFO study in 1969)..

Fortunately for President Ford, he did not pursue the matter. Nor did he attempt any plans to force the CIA and the U.S. military to reveal UFO information and the Roswell case to the public in the way that President Kennedy was willing to do in his day, and so put his own life in danger. Kennedy was special in his own right. Too special, in fact, for some people. It turned out they could not handle someone like Kennedy who was willing to rock the boat. For example, just ten days before Kennedy was assassinated and soon after he wrote his UFO memo, he spoke to an eager audience at Columbia University about his concerns of secrecy and the need for people to be more open-minded, free and independent to get to the truth. As Kennedy said (full speech available from here):

"The very word 'secrecy' is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths and secret proceedings.

We decided long ago that the dangers of excessive and unwarranted concealment of pertinent facts far outweighed the dangers which are cited to justify it. Even today, there is little value in opposing the threat of a closed society by imitating its arbitrary restrictions.

Even today, there is little value in insuring the survival of our nation if our traditions do not survive with it. And there is very grave danger that an announced need for increased security will be seized upon those anxious to expand its meaning to the very limits of official censorship and concealment.

That I do not intend to permit to the extent that it is in my control.

And no official of my Administration, whether his rank is high or low, civilian or military, should interpret my words here tonight as an excuse to censor the news, to stifle dissent, to cover up our mistakes or to withhold from the press and the public the facts they deserve to know.

For we are opposed around the world by a monolithic and ruthless conspiracy that relies on covert means for expanding its sphere of influence  on infiltration instead of invasion, on subversion instead of elections, on intimidation instead of free choice, on guerrillas by night instead of armies by day.

It is a system which has conscripted vast human and material resources into the building of a tightly knit, highly efficient machine that combines military, diplomatic, intelligence, economic, scientific and political operations.
Its preparations are concealed, not published. Its mistakes are buried not headlined. Its dissenters are silenced, not praised. No expenditure is questioned, no rumor is printed, no secret is revealed.

No President should fear public scrutiny of his program. For from that scrutiny comes understanding; and from that understanding comes support or opposition. And both are necessary.

I am not asking your newspapers to support the Administration, but I am asking your help in the tremendous task of informing and alerting the American people. For I have complete confidence in the response and dedication of our citizens whenever they are fully informed.

I not only could not stifle controversy among your readers  I welcome it.

This Administration intends to be candid about its errors; for as a wise man once said: 'An error does not become a mistake until you refuse to correct it'. We intend to accept full responsibility for our errors; and we expect you to point them out when we miss them.

Without debate, without criticism, no Administration and no country can succeed-- and no republic can survive.

That is why the Athenian lawmaker Solon decreed it a crime for any citizen to shrink from controversy.

And that is why our press was protected by the First (emphasized) Amendment  the only business in America specifically protected by the Constitution-- not primarily to amuse and entertain, not to emphasize the trivial and sentimental, not to simply "give the public what it wants"  but to inform, to arouse, to reflect, to state our dangers and our opportunities, to indicate our crises and our choices, to lead, mold educate and sometimes even anger public opinion.

This means greater coverage and analysis of international news  for it is no longer far away and foreign but close at hand and local. It means greater attention to improved understanding of the news as well as improved transmission. And it means, finally, that government at all levels, must meet its obligation to provide you with the fullest possible information outside the narrowest limits of national security...

And so it is to the printing press  to the recorder of mans deeds, the keeper of his conscience, the courier of his news  that we look for strength and assistance, confident that with your help man will be what he was born to be: free and independent."

Now, at last, we can see how his revealing memo on UFOs was just one part of the big picture that Kennedy had planned to reveal to the public. It was his personal effort  a kind of understanding of the Cold War with Russia and why it existed, and how important it is to share our knowledge of even the most controversial areas with fellow human beings  as well as deal with the secrecy in certain areas of the government to show that his Administration and those who are suppose to support it were not hiding anything important from Russia and the rest of the world. It was looking like Kennedy was on the cusp of revealing explosive insights into the UFO phenomenon, only to find that certain people in the know were afraid of what Kennedy was about to do. If that memo had been acted upon and achieved as Kennedy had wanted it done, all hell would break lose in the USAF and CIA. It could have meant a new world order was on the cards. However, in the end, the desperation of these people to stop a powerful man like Kennedy from revealing the deepest secrets was laid evident for the world to see on that fateful day in Dallas, Texas.

Sounds too incredible to be true? Well, there is one thing we can do right now to find out. As a final legacy from the former president who died trying to do the right thing (because he felt it was in the interest of the world to know the truth and bring peace with Russia), we should all carry out his last request of revealing everything the CIA and the military knows about UFOs and what was found in New Mexico in early July 1947 (the one that contained a significant amount of a highly pure shape-memory titanium-based alloy, together with the unnamed pilots and crew members that were found onboard the unusually smooth and rounded metal object) as a matter of expediency. As the official authorities keep saying to the public, UFOs are nothing out-of-the-ordinary. Okay, so prove it. If there is allegedly no evidence of any UFOs being potentially alien, then all UFO documents and the original materials of the Roswell object and bodies should be released to the public and scientific community for closer scrutiny. And there should be a steady stream of documents being released every year to prove it; and all so-called secret military experiments should eventually have no bearing on national security given enough time. That's the reality we should expect to see. Surely this final effort is the least we could give the former president for all he tried to do for the world.

And if we should find anyone in the CIA or the USAF complaining about this release of information, then firstly we will know who they are. And secondly, any complaints from these officials would give us reason to believe that UFOs do represent something far more significant to humankind. And that must surely be in the interest of the world to know the truth.

YEARS AGO

For ordinary people to take seriously the idea of recycling our energy and all of our waste products in the industrial age, we see the call for such change to the current economic system having its origins around the mid-1950s. And, incredibly enough, in the US of all places. Yet for some reason we find governments and business professionals would pooh-poohed the idea.

This is particularly important for the US military and intelligence communities as any emphasis on recycling concepts could reveal the secret to recycling electromagnetic energy via Albert Einstein's Unified Field Theory and the potential for a new technology (i.e. the UFO). It is better to emphasise jobs and the current economy and just consume to our hearts contents and don't worry about recycling. Just throw the waste in the ground in the old proverbial sweeping under the environmental carpet and hope no one would see it and things will return to normal. In the meantime, use up as much oil as possible while maintaining the status quo. And to pay for all of it, get a job in the economic system and everything should be fine.

But there are consequences for humankind in taking this non-recycling approach.

For a start, human population is increasing rapidly. We are living on this planet quite literally in the billions. Combine this with a powerful technology considered more than capable of putting every other competing predator in its place (including other humans although it won't necessarily stop all humans from trying to hurt other humans if they are disadvantaged in some way) while transforming vast areas of land to suit the belief systems of so many L-brain people without necessarily giving back to nature what we take and the impact humans are having on Earth's climate and the natural environment is starting to reveal its ugly head. Without some form of significant recycling, the human population is heading towards an irreversible disaster.

Something has to give.

YEARS AGO

There is good evidence to suggest that the USAF have understood the technology behind the UFO by the late 1970s. Because by late December 1980, the USAF would test a prototype for one of these UFOs in the state of Texas and to see what would happen if observed by civilian witnesses.

On the late evening of 29 December 1980, fifty-one-year-old business woman, Betty Cash, was driving home in her car with two other occupants: fifty-seven-year-old Vickie Landrum, an employee of a restaurant owned by Betty Cash, and her seven-year-old grandson, Colby Landrum. They drove along Highway FM1485 - only used by people who live in this sparsely-populated area because of its isolation  to get to their home in Dayton, Texas, USA.

At around 9.00 p.m., Colby Landrum was the first to notice a brightly-lit UFO moving over treetops that bounded the highway on both sides. Betty and Vickie, who could not ignore Colby's state of jubilation and excitement, looked in the direction Colby's finger was pointing. The distance between them and the UFO at that time was about five kilometres. Then the object approached the witnesses, until it straddled the road ahead of them, forcing Betty to slam on the brakes.

The object was described as diamond-shaped with blue lights centered around its outermost rim, and it glowed intensely. A large, intermittent flame could also be seen underneath the object, keeping it aloft. Despite the bright glow, it looked as if it were made of dull aluminium; and the object itself seemed to be devoid of sharp points and edges.

All three witnesses got out of the car in full view of the object hovering only fifty metres away: Vickie standing just behind the open door on the right-hand side with her left hand resting on the car roof; Colby next to Vickie for protection; and Betty walking around to the front of the car. For the next three minutes or so, Vickie and Betty stared intently at the brightly-lit object ahead of them while Colby pleaded with Vickie to get back inside the car. Unaware that the car body was now acting as a giant ionizing x-ray machine from the streaming electrons coming off the surface of the UFO and hitting the stainless steel car body, the witnesses remained still as they watched what the object would do next. Then the object began to rise slowly in the air. On seeing this, Vickie called out to Betty. She responded, but noticed when she got back to the door of her car just how painfully hot the handle was. Betty successfully opened the door with her leather jacket. As they entered the car, all three witnesses felt the intense heat of the interior; they were forced to turn on the air conditioner (likely to be caused by the intense oscillating magnetic field of the object inducing electrical currents in the car's stainless steel body, thereby heating up the metal).

As they watched the UFO depart, a group of black helicopters suddenly arrived on the scene. 'They seemed to rush in from all directions,' Betty recalls, '...it seemed like they were trying to encircle the thing.'

The last they saw of the UFO was when they drove off and joined a larger highway, where they could just make out what looked like a small cylindrical object lighting up the surrounding area and the helicopters following it closely. From this new vantage point, they counted 23 helicopters  some of the double-rotor (CH-47 Chinooks) and others of the single-rotor types.

By the time the witnesses arrived home, they all noticed their skin turning red as if badly sunburnt (especially Vickie's left hand), and a collection of blisters had appeared (especially on Betty's face). Other medical symptoms included headaches, diarrhoea, swellings on the neck and eyes, feelings of tiredness, and all had experienced hair loss of varying degrees of severity, with Colby being the least affected. After examination by doctors, it was concluded that the witnesses had probably been exposed to radiation of some type.

"This is a very important case providing physical evidence of the existence of UFOs," said John Schussler, a NASA aerospace engineer who investigated the case. "A radiologist who examined the women's records said they were apparently suffering from the symptoms of radiation poisoning."

As for proving whether or not the United States government was directly involved in the incident is extremely difficult, if not impossible. For as the New York Times reported on 20 January 1981: "Finding out what goes on in the CIA [and other clandestine organisations] is like performing acupuncture on a rock."

Unless, of course, one can apply the traditional blow torch of intimate scientific knowledge about how UFOs work right up the proverbial backsides of those in the know at the CIA and the USAF. Then the scientific wedge will widen the cracks in the secrecy and eventually force the truth out.

Until then, which isn't too far away, it would appear a small band of isolated US scientists had been forced under oath to maintain complete secrecy while working to reverse-engineer the crashed disk and all their knowledge gathered from UFO reports and have made a crude example of a UFO for themselves. The use of a chemical propulsion directly below the glowing diamond-shaped object suggests a backup system is necessary should the primary electromagnetic propulsion concept fail in any way. Thus the reason for why UFOs glow and its relationship to electromagnetic propulsion has finally been worked out.

After the close call the incident in Texas created with the public, the USAF has moved over to a more secret and isolated location known as Area 51 to test more prototypes employing the UFO technology. We learn about this from U.S. citizens who secretly try to get close to the site and use binoculars to observe what is going on. And here we learn of glowing objects performing some remarkable feats in the air near the USAF base.

Or maybe it is time for the rest of the world to try this technology out for ourselves. Then we will know exactly what the USAF is hiding.

YEARS AGO

While UFOs might be considered too controversial for some people  mainly those who prefer to see things with their own eyes  until evidence of a more direct nature is found (either to build the electromagnetic technology to take us to the stars, or to have just one alien civilisation make the decision to present the evidence to the scientific community), there is one area no one can ignore mainly because of the mounting direct scientific evidence to support the observations. It is the evidence supporting the view that humans are affecting the planet in ways that are not entirely helpful to the future of all living things. Of great concern are the greenhouse effect (the trapping of heat from the Sun) caused by the release of carbon dioxide and other pollutants from the burning of natural forests from land clearing and coal-fired power stations, the sudden release of stored methane under the oceans and in permafrosts to further raise world temperatures, greater levels of pollution in fresh water supplies and in the air from chemical factories, natural fish in the oceans becoming increasingly decimated from overfishing and being slowly poisoned by chemicals, massive glaciers melting and the beginning of what will almost certainly become massive sea level rises beyond the current predictions made by computer modelling, and so on.

Among the scientific evidence in support of the "greenhouse gas" problem (or global warming, researchers at the University of Alaska have discovered an alarming increase in the rate of melting of ice after surveying 67 major glaciers. It has already been known since the mid-1950s that glaciers were melting. However, a study has found in the five years to 2002, the rate of melting has almost doubled to nearly 52 cubic kilometres a year compared to the rate of melting from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s (12). And the process is accelerating. The consequences are clear: pure ice from the glaciers are turning into water which eventually flows to the sea and this in turn raises the world's sea levels, putting coastal cities at higher risk of being flooded. The researchers came to this conclusion after measuring on an annual basis the changes occurring to the surface of glaciers using a laser system transported in an aircraft.

And now some scientists are claiming the greenhouse gases in the air is in greater concentrations than for the last 400,000 years and increasing at a rate more rapid than at any time in the history of life on Earth. The warning bells are ringing.

Even the economic costs to deal with this problem will escalate and eventually even the richest nations on Earth will struggle to raise enough taxes to cover the costs. At some point the economic system will collapse under the weight of the environmental problems and there will not be enough resources to manage the problem. A major and new social world order will have to begin.

Are the brains of humans big enough to solve the biggest environmental problems of our times, and do it quick enough? Or has greed and power taken over the most powerful leaders of the world and their supporters (i.e., the people who support the system), And can we afford the USAF to continue hiding all it can about its knowledge of UFO technology from the rest of the world?

Or are there too many Christians in the world who believe the Bible story in Genesis still applies in the 21st century and we can still continue to multiply and use up the resources without recycling? As we find in the Old Testament:

"Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over every living thing that moves upon the earth." (Genesis 1:28)

Continue with this thinking and soon the environment will have dominion over humans in a negative way once the resources are depleted and we have thrown our waste into the atmosphere. It sounds like certain people in the world will be reliving the Aztec experience very soon.

Should we reach this drastic crisis, there will definitely be no religion for people to practice.

Maybe it is time we start practising the principle of love in its most fundamental sense with all living things and not expect to always "multiply" at the expense of other living things. Just learn to live within our means, and let people find innovative and long-term solutions to solve all problems without having to pay people with money. Instead give them love through the food and shelter they need, and give them access to knowledge and the essential tools, and the rest will be taken care of by the people. Because then we will all do the right thing by one another.

The truest sense of the word "love" has yet to be understood and experienced by all in the new world order.

Scientists have estimated world temperatures have risen by 3 degrees in the century prior to 2005. Much higher temperatures are being predicted as of 2012 in this century.

Connor 2003, p.B8. Further details about Ruddiman's theory can be found in the publication Climatic Change (December 2003 edition). Scientists also claim increases in greenhouse gases can occur naturally and in a fluctuating manner because of a variation in the Earth's orbit which could bring our planet closer to the Sun or if the Sun creates unexpected bursts of energy. So long as there is water in the ground, higher the expected temperatures can not only increase the amount of plants growing (although admittedly this should also reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere) as a source of food for animals and with it a greater population of animals emitting methane to the atmosphere, but during the summer, it can increase the likelihood of massive bushfires spreading throughout a dry continent after a lightning strike (or a human making a silly mistake with his use of fire).

We may still yet have to do a lot more looking at ourselves in the present time to solve all our world problems.

There is scientific evidence to support the idea that sex and other positive experiences can extend one's lifespan. It has something to do with certain chemicals released in the body during pleasurable moments and the way these chemical then interact with other more harmful chemicals (e.g. free radicals) to help better protect the body. To increase lifespan more significantly, other factors need to be considered. In particular, a good, clean and simple diet of fresh water, vegetables, fruit and fish (i.e., contains high doses of anti-oxidants); and, protecting oneself from the relentless and some of the more energetic variety of electromagnetic radiation penetrating the body everyday are essential. Otherwise some way to slow the rate of cell replication will help (as occurs with turtles, which apparently have a very low rate of genetic mutations of any animal).

The Ten Commandments are practical rules following the the principle of love and written down for L-brain people to observe and remember before they apply themselves to the real world. It generally helps those who are less creative and cannot visualize how their actions can adversely affect other like-minded people. It should be remembered that these are basic rules to begin the process of understanding the principle of love. The rules are not exhaustive. The rest must be determined through experience and careful thinking to help determine how we should all love one another.

It is generally accepted according to members of the public, the secret service agents, and the driver of the president's car, that a total of three bullets were fired at the president. The Warren Commission believed that only one bullet had missed the president (it has never been recovered). The second shot hit the president through his neck and allegedly got lodged in the drivers leg after it passed through his back, came out the chest, hit the wrist, came out again and eventually into the leg. This is called the magic bullet theory. The third and final bullet is the one that caused the most damage and considered the most unusual given the amount of damage done to the president's head. Interestingly, there is an opposing observation coming from the driver. William Robert Greer (1905-1989), the man and secret service agent who drove the president's car, gave a different account claiming the first bullet hit the president but he wasn't injured. That was when the president spoke to the driver and his wife that he was hit. The second bullet was heard by the driver and this one hit him. He agrees the third bullet was the one that killed the president.

How convenient? In fact, the secret service agents were expecting the president's body to be taken to Washington, D.C., but didn't realise under Texas law, an autopsy had to be performed. There was a stand-off between the agents and the person at the Parkland Hospital in Dallas who would do the autopsy. There was even a threat that the agents would pull out their guns as if to kill the medical professional. Fortunately, common sense prevailed. Any more deaths, this time by the secret service agents, would look very bad and may help to point any conspiracy towards these men as partly responsible for the president's death. Autopsy report was written, but incredibly the report suddenly disappeared. A further autopsy was performed in Washington by a Naval pathology team at Bethesda Naval Hospital, but somehow the two military people chosen with general autopsy procedures  Commander J. Thorton Boswell and Commander James J. Humes  had no knowledge of forensic autopsy procedures. In the end, two photocopies of the x-ray images in the first autopsy and later several photographs of the back of the president's head and back region in the second autopsy were made available and had to be used as evidence that the autopsy was performed on the president to keep the public quiet and made to think everything was above board, and hence nothing unusual was expected to be found (the authorities had their man in custody and this should be the end of the matter). The Warren Commission relied heavily on the Naval team for autopsy information to write its final report.

There is a photograph in circulation, the original of which shows a man of the same body build and who happened to be wearing the exact same clothing as Mr Oswald when he was arrested as revealed by numerous other photographs taken by the media for comparison. If it is Mr Oswald in the picture, he was standing outside the front door to the library looking at the president in the car after it made the turn into the street and was heading away towards the location where the president would meet his death. The photograph showing someone looking remarkably like Mr Oswald makes it very clear the president was still alive when the photograph was taken. And if it is Mr Oswald, there is no chance for the man to have run inside and get to the sixth floor to do the dirty deed on the president. Even if he had everything prepared and hidden the rifle in the room prior to that fateful day, he needed to have super human capabilities to get to the room, take out the rifle, open the window, got down and prepared himself, lower his breathing rate, try to aim the rifle at the president and move the rifle to follow the moving target, and knowing all the while he was not a good shooter in terms of accuracy, tried to shoot three bullets in the timeframe he was limited to. It seems rather pointless the whole exercise, and especially since his gripe was not on the leftist views of the president, but more on the radical hard right views of certain people for which he detested (and hence the reason why he previously attempted to shoot at one person prior to this event  and failed at a shorter distance even when the person was not moving i.e., sitting down at his desk in his home as the police records indicate).

Here are the best available photographs showing the mystery man outside the front door of the library looking around.

Here are the clothes Mr Oswald wore on the day he was arrested.

When the photograph was released, considerable efforts were made by unknown persons to remove the top layer of another man next to the mystery man. Now it is believed the head of another man named Mr Billy Nolan Lovelady was carefully removed and placed over Mr Osward. The photograph was then re-photographed and the damaged area recreated to make it look like the original.

Here is the area marked out in green where the damage was found.

If it was Mr Oswald standing there looking at the president while he was alive, it would be a travesty of justice for the poor man while the real killer is somewhere still at large in American society and probably knows why it all happened. Incredible.

So can we be sure it was Mr Oswald who pulled the trigger despite his fingerprint appearing on the rifle in the Depository Book room on the sixth floor of the library? Apart from the fact that no one has ever seen him going to the room, some people believe it probably wasn't Mr Oswald mainly because he claimed to reporters that he was working on the first floor when the shooting happened and so it couldn't be him. The responses received from Mr Oswald to support this theory are as follows:

Reporter: Did you shoot the President?
Oswald: I work in that building.
Reporter: Were you in that building at the time?
Oswald: Naturally if I work in that building, yes sir.

The problem is, the responses given by Mr Oswald is not suggesting he had fully understood the questions he was being asked. He seemed to naturally assume that by being anywhere inside the building or on the steps to the library at the front door that this was sufficient for him in his mind to consider it as being inside the building. And when he walked back up the stairs to continue his work, Mr Oswald stated to police that he was working on the first floor. Was this to avoid getting into trouble with his employer? Was he and several other employees breaking some rule and not getting permission from the boss to go outside and watch the proceedings? It is strange that this line of questioning by the reporter and police investigators was not specific enough to give a precise minute-by-minute account of the whereabouts of the man within the building, including whether he actually went outside to see the president in his motorcade.

It would make perfect sense for Mr Oswald and a number of other employees of the building to walk out the front door briefly and take a look at the president. Why not? It is not everyday such an event would happen. Sneak out quickly and get back within a few minutes might be enough to "get away with it" should the boss be unaware. For Mr Oswald, it may not have been getting away with murder, but rather finding the time to briefly see the president.

Then we learn Mr Oswald stated to police that he saw, and allegedly was with, Bill Shelley outside the door. Shelley was observed as Mr Oswald had claimed by another man named Billy Nolan Lovelady. Strangely, neither Mr Oswald nor Mr Lovelady could confirm whether either of them were present. Indeed, Mr Oswald did not mention any other employee present outside. Is this because working on the first day in the library was not conducive to remembering or being aware of all the people working in the same building? Maybe it took a while for Mr Oswald to become familiar and recognise the faces of all his workers. Only Bill Shelley, who encouraged Mr Oswald to come out to have a look, was the one that had the strongest imprint on his mind.

Mr Will Fritz of the Dallas Police Department wrote in his notes during his interview with Mr Oswald that he was "out with Bill Shelley in front" (see this link) of the library building watching the president going by. The Fritz notes does exist and were not mentioned by the Warren Commission. In fact, the notes were hidden from the public until 1997.

Now this is an important piece of evidence. Mr Oswald obviously knew that one man was outside. No indications anyone had told him about this. As for why Mr Oswald and Mr Lovelady had not seen each other, it is quite possible Mr Oswald was not familiar with Mr Lovelady as an employee of the library because he had not been working in the building for very long. Likewise Mr Lovelady could have been completely unaware of Mr Oswald and who he was, never mind if he was an employee in the library. Yet somehow Mr Oswald knew Mr Shelley was present outside. Most intriguing.

That may be crucial evidence.

If this is true, how did Mr Oswald know Mr Shelley would be standing outside the building? It sounds very much like Mr Oswald was there too.

If the photograph showing what appears to be a man wearing remarkably similar clothing to Ms Oswald is in fact Mr Oswald, then how long did Mr Oswald stay outside? Long enough until Mr Oswald saw the president moving away and decided he would walk back inside the building on his own. Just as he was going upstairs to the first floor, the shooting began. No other staff member outside saw Mr Oswald walk back in, let alone whether they all recognised him as a new employee standing outside (or more likely that given the attitude of American citizens at the time that if the authorities find Oswald's fingerprint on the gun that it must have been him who did it, so maybe the testimony from some witnesses would show some deliberate forgetfulness and even needing to pin it on the man given such seemingly strong evidence against him). To make it doubly worse for Mr Oswald, there was no one on the first floor to support his claim to the police that he was working on the first floor when it all happened. And all the while we have various other people who were prepared to call Mr Oswald a liar simply because his fingerprint were found on the rifle on the sixth floor.

Can we be sure it was Mr Oswald who used the rifle on the president? Or could it be that what Mr Oswald was saying is the truth?

Also, on closer examination of the photos, we see three people near the doorway. Apart from the mystery man looking around the entrance way with his interesting clothing and body build of the type to support Mr Oswald's claims of being outside, we see a person to the left of the mystery man and behind with two arms held up to cover the person's face from the sun to get a better look (either Sarah Stanton or Buell Frazier). Then there is a third man just in front of this person, lower down. Part of his head starts to show, but suddenly his face is cut out, He appears to be standing a couple of rungs down the stairs looking over. The claim is that the head of this person was Mr Lovelady and it has been alleged that his face was removed and placed over Mr Oswald's to prevent the Warren Commission from concluding that Mr Oswald was the mystery man looking on according to this site.

Here is the suggested re-creation of the original showing what could have been in the photograph if it wasn't damaged (pictures of Mr Lovelady and Mr Oswald are used in this re-creation).

As a result of this tampering or damage done to the photograph together with testimony from witnesses that Lovelady did not have his shirt open in a V-pattern like Mr Oswald's clothing did to reveal the white shirt as appears in the mystery man in the photograph, Professor James Fetzer's stated in his book titled Murder in Dealey Plaza:

"A man many people think strongly resembles Lee Harvey Oswald is pictured standing in the front entrance of the Book Depository Building. If it is, in fact, Oswald, he could not have been on the sixth floor of the building when the shots were fired. The Warren Commission will discount any possibility that the figure is Oswald, and instead identifies the man as Billy Nolan Lovelady, another building employee. The man in the photo is wearing a dark, heavy-textured shirt open halfway to the waist over a white undershirt. Lovelady later tells reporters that he was wearing a red-and-white-striped sport shirt that day. The identity of the man in the photo has never been clearly established. (pp. 34-35)

The question remains: Did Mr Oswald stand outside the front door of the library looking at the motorcade for a brief moment? Only he can say with any reasonable certainty. Unfortunately we will never know for sure since the man at the centre of this controversy was shot dead prematurely by a man with links to the Mafia. How convenient?

Apart from that, we see that Mr Oswald was meant to be working in the library. Roy Truly, told the Warren Commission that Mr Oswald was an employee. Truly had the option to assign Oswald to one of two buildings on his first day at work. "I might have sent Oswald to work [there]....Oswald and another fellow reported for work on the same day [October 15] and I needed one of them for the depository building. I picked Oswald."

Interesting to see it was Mr Oswald's first day at work. This would explain so much. A lot of the staff members at the time were probably unfamiliar with a new employee. Combined with such focus on the president's motorcade, it must have made for a difficult time to prove a lot of Mr Oswald's claims, let alone who was present and where. Only Bill Shelley could have shed some light and confirm what happened. Unfortunately his testimony starts to get unreliable as if he too has decided that Mr Oswald had to be the man who did it. In the case of Mr Lovelock, he claimed not to have noticed Mr Oswald. Or maybe he hadn't met the guy to know who he was; and he, like the other staff members, was too preoccupied with watching the president to really know all the people who were standing around.

In conclusion, could Mr Oswald have shot the president given this extra snippet of interesting information? If the photograph genuinely shows Mr Oswald looking on with the rest of the crowd but had been modified to show Mr Lovelady's face on Mr Oswald's body, then it would be impossible for him to have done it. And it would also make the case of who killed the president even more sinister. Why the considerable effort to frame Mr Oswald as the sole shooter?

Eight months prior to Kennedy's assassination, Oswald was believed to have fired a rifle shot through a window of the home of Major-General Edwin Walker, a retired military man who had an ultra R-wing nationalist with opposing views to the left-wing President John F. Kennedy. At the time it happened (on the evening of 10 April 1963), a 14-year-old boy heard the shot at night and saw two people running from near Walker's house to a car parked in a Church yard nearby and drove off quickly. He gave considerable details of the description of the men and cars. Still, no one knew who the men were for more than eight months.

Then Kennedy was assassinated and Mr Oswald became the prime suspect. Police checked his home and found nothing to link him to the shooting of Mr Walker..

Two months after the assassination, Mr Oswald's wife Marina was held against her will at the Inn of the Six Flags in Arlington, near Forth Worth. Here she was interrogated by the secret service and the FBI and threatened with deportation to the Soviet Union. Presumably this was necessary because she was not co-operate fully with their investigations (Warren Commission Hearings, vol.1, p.410). Fearing a return to her former homeland, she came up with several statements incriminating her husband. She claimed, for instance, in one statement that her husband allegedly wrote a note to her explaining what she should do if he got arrested. Later he returned and allegedly admitted that he had shot at Mr Walker (for Marina's account, see Warren Report, pp.405f). Or was it Mr Oswald's accomplice who fired the weapon while he was present? No one knows.

The Warren Commission, on searching for a possible motive for shooting the president, seized on these statements and assumed this was evidence of Oswald's "murderous tendencies" (see Warren Report, p.183).

But if what Marina said was true, there was no indications that Mr Oswald wanted to kill Mr Walker. Certainly he did not mention to his wife that he regretted not killing Mr Walker, or would try again. Sounds more like he wanted to frighten Mr Walker because of his extreme views if we assumed he was present at the shooting. And why suddenly stop shooting if he (and/or his accomplice) had "got away with it"? He could have repeated it with other American men with similar extremist views. If the note can be relied upon, Mr Oswald seemed prepared for the possibility of being arrested. So why the change heart by no longer pursuing his shootings for eight months?

Furthermore, the president had opposing views to Mr Walker. Why should Mr Oswald shoot at MR Walker and the president? If anything, Mr Oswald would have been more supportive of the president's left-wing views.

As for the existence of this other man, Mr Oswald never mentioned him to his wife or anyone else. At the time of the attempted assassination on Mr Walker's life, police was unable to determine who this other man was (or even Mr Oswald) to confirm what really happened. Not even the witness, Walter Kirk Coleman, with his considerable details of the description of the men and their cars could confirm one of the men was Mr Oswald. He was shown a photograph by police of Mr Oswald and with his excellent memory he flat out denied Mr Oswald resembled either of the men. Furthermore, Mr Oswald had no skills to drive a car. Not even another witness and associate of Mr Walker, Robert Surray, could recognise any of the two men as Mr Oswald when he reported them to police as acting suspiciously outside Walker's home just two days before the shooting.

Yet despite all this, the Warren Commission assumed Mr Oswald was the only person to have fired the weapon on the president. And in an attempt to find a motive, the Commission accepted the forced statements from Mr Oswald's wife even though she was naturally trying to do all she could to protect herself and stay in the United States.

Later a woman named Ruth Paine came forth to supply what she claimed to be the handwritten note from Mr Oswald, written in Russian, to support Marina's statements. Mrs Paine assisted Marina by giving her a place to stay at the time of the assassination and subsequent investigations. Paine claimed the note was found tucked inside a Russian-language book and supplied as evidence during the Warren Commission. This book was at Paine's home all this time. Yet when Paine's home was thoroughly searched by police on the afternoon of the assassination and Paine stated the officers were looking for loose papers within books, the note was never found.

Regarding the handwriting aspect of the note, only one of three handwriting experts was prepared to claim it could have been written by Mr Oswald.

As for the content of the note, it never mentioned Mr Walker. Only that Mr Oswald was worried he could get arrested. Over what? No one knows. The note was undated, so it could have been anything he was doing since he arrived in the United States. Just to further add doubt to the authenticity of the note, the FBI's fingerprint expert found "seven sets of fingerprints on the note. None of them belonged to either Lee or Marina Oswald".

If this isn't enough, we have the situation of how likely Mr Oswald could have shot anyone with any reasonable accuracy. Mr Oswald did purchase a rifle, possibly for his protection. Perhaps not everyone was welcoming of people from Russia during the height of the Cold War. Mr Oswald may not have felt totally comfortable in his new country. At any rate, if he did attempt to aim his rifle at Mr Walker (most likely to frighten him off and stop his extremist views), his accuracy at about 100 feet for a none moving target was made abundantly clear as Mr Walker survived the assassination attempt, and that was a much closer target compared to the president.

Regarding whether the weapon (known as a Mannlicher-Carcano) owned by Mr Oswald was the same one used in the president's killing, the following information was used in the Warren Commission's report:

"Robert A. Frazier, an FBI ballistics identification expert, testified that he was "unable to reach a conclusion" as to whether or not the bullet recovered from Walker's house had been fired from the rifle found on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository Building. He concluded that "the general rifling characteristics of the rifle * * * are of the same type as those found on the bullet * * * and, further, on this basis * * * the bullet could have been fired from the rifle on the basis of its land and groove impressions." Frazier testified further that the FBI 'avoids the category of "probable" identification. Unless the missile or cartridge case can be identified as coming from a particular weapon to the exclusion of all others, the FBI refuses to draw any conclusion as to probability. Frazier testified, however, that he found no microscopic characteristics or other evidence which would indicate that the bullet was not fired from the Mannlicher-Carcano rifle owned by Lee Harvey Oswald. It was a 6.5-millimeter bullet and, according to Frazier, "relatively few" types of rifles could produce the characteristics found on the bullet."

In other words, the bullet in Walker's case that ended up lodged in the wall was so mangled up, the only thing the authorities could say about the bullet at the time was that it had a diameter of 6.5mm  just right to fit Mr Oswald's rifle. Whether it was Mr Oswald's rifle that was used to shoot at Mr Walker, no one could be sure. As for whether the exact same rifle owned by Mr Oswald was used to later assassinate President John F. Kennedy, again no one could prove beyond any reasonable doubt. The only thing one could say was that somehow Mr Oswald's fingerprints were on a rifle that appears in every way as the same as Mr Oswald's. Or was it actually Mr Oswald's gun?

If it was Mr Oswald's gun, it would explain the fingerprints. The question is how did the gun get into the depository on the day of the assassination? And if it was another identical rifle, how did Mr Oswald's fingerprints get there?

Then we learn from Marina that she did have a quick look in the shed for the rifle after she heard about the shootings. She thought the rifle was there but never properly checked it by removing the covers. This may be significant in that the rifle may already have been taken by someone else.

It goes to show there is far more to this case than meets the eye.

An experienced Australian police detective Colin McLaren, now retired, has made an independent investigation of the JFK assassination case. After several years of checking all available information from the Warren Commission report, witnesses testimony from a wide range of reputable sources including those given to police, and visiting the site of the shooting, he now gives firm support to a second gunman being present at the time of Kennedy's murder. All the latest ballistic evidence and known details about Kennedy's wounds and entry point for the fatal bullet showed quite convincingly that there had to be a second gunman.

After a careful analysis of the positions of all known witnesses and those following the president, the position of the second gunman has been determined to be somewhere from behind the president. And give the nature of the bullet and the way it seems to explode on entering the skull, there seems to be only one person who could have fired the fatal shot. This person was standing temporarily in the back seat of the car travelling behind the president's own vehicle. It was the car that held an array of secret service agents presumably there to protect the president.

On checking all available film footage and photographs, we find there is a secret agent in the right position as expected from the ballistic evidence. And more importantly, he was carrying, in plain sight of witnesses, a particularly powerful AR-15 rifle that no other secret agent or other individuals were allowed to carry. It contained the bullets designed to explode on impact to ensure death was quick as can be observed by the way the president's skull literally exploded outwards over the front and right side of the head. No other secret service agents in the car or elsewhere (not even Mr Oswald) had a gun specially-designed to fire exploding bullets.

NOTE 1: Attempts have been made to show whether the bullets of the rifle found in the Depository Book room could explode. On the rare occasions the bullets could be made to break up, it is usually because it has hit something much harder than the bones of a skull. Then the bullet may shatter into a few parts. On the whole, bullets fired from this type of weapon normally stay intact and will look mangled on impact with wood or semi-hardened materials. In the case of the bullet that killed the president, there is reasonable information on records to suggest that as many as 40 fragments were found in the skull, far more than is possible for the bullets that would emerge from a rifle of the type owned by Mr Oswald prior to this fateful day in Dallas, Texas.

NOTE 2: No one actually saw Mr Oswald carry a rifle into the library. The Warren Commission relied on Dallas police to claim that the rifle was probably concealed in a long brown paper bag and no one took notice of it. The paper bag was eventually found in the Depository Book room, but surprisingly not all policemen could agree if the paper bag was in the room in the early stages of examining the crime scene. And strangely the bag itself was never actually photographed as standard procedure to show where it was found compared to photographs of the rifle itself and other items discovered at the crime scene. Later the FBI eventually took a photo of the bag and a blanket that was believed had been wrapped around the rifle on a small table. Other inconsistencies also emerged about the length of the paper bag and whether it could have hidden the longest part of the diassembled rifle. Also Mr Oswald acknowledged that he had a long paper bag to carry curtain rods, but never acknowledged carrying a rifle.

At any rate, even if in the slightest possibility it was not the secret agent who had fired the fatal shot, there would have to be at least two gunmen involved. If this is true, then it would be highly unlikely that Mr Oswald was the man who killed the president.

However, if it was the secret agent who fired the fatal shot, about the only part of this interesting Australian investigation considered not entirely convincing is why did the agent fire the shot? Was it by accident, or a deliberate attempt to get rid of the president? The investigation falls short of finding the answer to this question mainly because it felt that there was no more evidence to suggest one answer or the other. Unless the secret agent himself were to come forth and confess, this last part has to remain a mystery. But already we can see on closer examination of the life of John F. Kennedy in the days leading up to his death at least one good reason why people like the CIA would want to assassinate the president to avoid an important truth from coming out into the public domain. Was it a planned assassination by the the CIA to use one of the secret service agents to do the killing and Mr Oswald became the scapegoat to cover the CIA's and the secret service agents' dirty job?

In JFK: The Smoking Gun televised in a world premiere on SBS on 3 November 2013, we know the secret service agent in question had stood up in the back seat according to eyewitness testimony, together with a colleague sitting next to him, just as the second shot from Mr Oswald had been fired and pierced through the president's upper torso (and it wasn't of the exploding type, so technically the president could have been saved at this point). As the agent got up, he grabbed next to his feet what is now understood to be a non-standard issue high-powered rifle already loaded and ready to fire bullets. The bullets used were not ordinary ones that other secret agents would naturally carry around as part of their work. These bullets were designed to explode on impact with a target (i.e., create maximum damage for the purposes of ensuring a person is killed when one of these bullets enter the body). Also the agent had only been on the job for less than 4 months, yet he was given an exceptionally powerful weapon to presumably use to protect the president which, for some reason, no other more experienced agent was allowed to carry. Why him specifically? What was his expertise in this type of rifle? Even if we assume the agent was experienced with such weaponry, the documentary could only make the claim at the end that the shot fired by the agent was probably an accident (i.e., he fell down when the car was thought to be accelerating). Looking at the testimony of witnesses this does not look to be the case. For example, the agent who fired the fatal shot was allowed to continue carrying the gun when he stood up again and started brandishing it around as if trying to find the other gunman. Why didn't his colleague next to him take the gun away? He must have heard the rifle go off and saw the aftermath of the impact with the president's head. Even after the fatal shot, considerable effort was being made to cover up the evidence on the president's body (in particular the head region) so as not to pinpoint the origin of the fatal shot. There was something about the bullet that would have proved it did not come from Mr Oswald's rifle (assuming that other rifle was his despite his fingerprints being present on it). So clearly the service agents in the car knew what had happened. Yet nothing was done to take the rifle away from the guy who fired the shot. Extraordinary.

Then, at the Dallas hospital, the secret agent was still allowed to carry the powerful gun when he was asked to protect Vice President Johnson. Yet the other agents were already acting like they knew what happened and who fired the fatal shot by the way they were showing an enormous effort to take the body away against Texas law before an autopsy was performed. And when the autopsy had to be done in Washington, all efforts were made at that location to change the autopsy report and later all brain samples and dozens of photographs of the president's head were confiscated and never to be seen again. There was definitely something odd about the fatal bullet that the authorities did not want the public to know about.

The secret service agents knew what had happened. There was no way it could be denied. Something had to be done to cover things up, or else the public will be able to point a finger at the secret service agents (and maybe eventually the CIA if a proper and comprehensive public inquiry into the matter could force the secret agent responsible for the fatal shot to explain what really happened).

Well, let's face it. The secret service had to have known because as soon as the bullet from his rifle was fired and hit the president in the head, the smell of gunpowder from such a powerful weapon would have filled the air in and around the secret service vehicle. Now we find numerous civilian witnesses standing on the side of the road had noticed the smell as the secret service agents vehicle moved past them. Therefore, it would be reasonable to assume that every secret agent in the car must have heard and known who fired the fatal shot (and there was only one seen holding the rifle in plain view of witnesses after it happened by the very gunman himself). Yet the incredible effort to cover up the evidence and ask one of the pathologists to make it look like the bullet came from a different type corresponding to the one fired by Mr Oswald while still allowing the agent who almost certainly was the one who killed the president to continue working as if nothing ever happened or it was just part of his job, makes this case still more perplexing. And to make it worse, when the agent was tracked down and asked about the event, he was prepared to sue people in court rather than discuss it normally. it just made the situation worse for him as if he knew something that Mr McLaren didn't know at the time of the murder. People will understand if it was an accident. Yet the agent's actions immediately after the death of the president and when investigators pursued the matter with him decades later does not seem to support the "accident theory".

Seriously, the whole conspiracy theories and containing saga over this event could have ended if the guy had simply admitted to shooting the president by accident. Perhaps a slap on the wrist of the secret service for not being honest and up-front in the first place when it happened, but life would go on, including the man himself who shot and killed the president (he would be forgiven). Yet his actions is not suggesting an accident of any sort. It is like he knows something else and is doing everything he can to avoid answering questions.

If this is untrue, there should be evidence to show how upset the secret service agent was when it happened. Indeed, all of the secret agents should have expressed some level of disappointment as well as sorrow for what had happened. Unfortunately, there is no evidence he or anyone else was upset from the way events unfolded after the shooting. In fact, quite the opposite. The testimonial evidence indicates the agent had not questioned himself as to whether he had shot the president by accident. He was not even prepared to step down from his position and/or hand over the weapon to one of his colleagues next to him in the car or at the hospital if he thought he did despite clear efforts by the secret agents to cover up the evidence. To make it even worse, he was allowed to continue carrying the weapon to protect vice president Johnson in the Texas hospital. The situation just doesn't look right.

We may at last know who the second shooter was (the name of the secret agent is revealed in the documentary), but there is more to this case than meets the eye. It is starting to look like it really was a deliberate plot to bring down a president for whatever reason.

Update

Opposing views to the scenario presented by the Australian detective can be read here.

The best way to explain this situation is by watching the science fiction film Total Recall (the original movie). In this Hollywood film, Arnold Schwarznegger plays the role of a man named Quade who discovers by accident hidden memories of his true life as another man before his memories were suppressed by the authorities. When he learns who he really is, the bigger truth of life and his purpose starts to emerge. In particular, he would learn how the authorities on Earth known as The Agency are controlling the thinking and activities performed by every person in society because the authorities want to hide the evidence for an alien technology hidden on Mars that would benefit everyone (i.e. provide fresh oxygen to the planet Mars). However, the authorities would deny the average citizen access to this technology because of an initial fear of creating panic in the general public if everyone knew the truth, and later as a way of maintaining the authorities' position of power by creating a system that forces people not to see the truth.

The study of 67 glaciers was headed by A.A. Arandt. Further details can be found in the 19 July 2002 edition of Science under the title "Rapid wastage of Alaska glaciers and their contribution to rising sea level". A copy can be obtained from here.